In the 1970s, librarians were exploring ways newly-available computers might be used to transform every way libraries worked. The Penn State Libraries asked an ambitious question: could we build a library system ourselves? Out of this was born the Library Information Access System, LIAS. This oral history, conducted between 2021 and 2024, interviews 14 library employees who worked during the era of LIAS. Interviewees range from its lead technical architect and programmers to catalogers, library managers, subject librarians and three library administrators.
In this project, we seek to frame contingency in digital libraries, archives, and museums as a collective, not individual, concern. As we collaboratively improve our understanding of this concern, we will have the grounding to develop actionable outcomes, in the form of best practices. Through these, we will identify opportunities to enact change or improve current practices at both funding and LAM institutions. The forum aims to spark a national discourse into broader visions for worker equity and inclusion within this collective framework of concern and to model how such partnerships may respectfully engage all parties involved toward effecting change.