Bobinski Lecture Series
This lecture is supported by the George and Mary Bobinski Lecture Fund. This fund was established to bring scholars of significant standing and high quality to address important topics in library and information science.
2026 Lecture — Librarianship, Information & Education
Lorcan Dempsey
International Librarian, Writer and Adviser
- Date: Thursday, April 23, 2026
- Time: 5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. lecture
- Location: 310 Capen Hall | Silverman Library | UB North Campus
Reception sponsored by: Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, University at Buffalo Libraries, and the Western New York Library Resources Council
Librarianship, information and education, each of these words is complicated by social and technological reconfigurations. This presentation will consider the educational demands of the relational library, the floating contexts of information, and the university as a research and education partner of the library in its institutional and organizational fullness.
Lorcan Dempsey is a librarian who has worked for library, non-profit and educational organizations in Ireland, the UK and the US. His influence on library directions in the US, Europe and around the world is widely recognized. He has overseen national library and informational programs in the UK and has managed two internationally recognized library R&D units (UKOLN and OCLC Research). He has worked on pioneering network information systems, has overseen a variety of membership and governance activities, and has been responsible for national and international operational services.
Lorcan was recently Professor of Practice and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Information School, University of Washington (a two-year engagement). He worked for over twenty years at OCLC, a global library services organization and before this, he worked for a national educational infrastructure and innovation organization, Jisc, in the UK. He began his library career in public libraries in Dublin, Ireland, where he grew up.
He has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University in the UK, the IFLA Medal, the Miles Conrad Award, and other honors in recognition of his contribution to library development around the world. He was very pleased to have his work acknowledged by a special award from the Library Association of Ireland.
About the Series
George S. Bobinski, emeritus professor and former dean of the School of Information and Library Studies, is a library historian and noted scholar. Mary Bobinski was a former director of Amherst Public Libraries, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. The George and Mary Bobinski Lecture Fund was established to bring scholars of significant standing and high quality to address important topics in library and information studies.