MLIS 1972
Senior Consultant
Cutter Consortium
Elk Grove, CA USA

What I am doing now.

I have had a “long, strange trip”, as Jerry used to say. I did work in the Palo Alto City Library system for 12 years after graduation, where I did mostly reference work, shared a job assignment in cataloging, and served as head of the main library and the downtown branch. I also performed a systems analysis that led to one of the first ever competitive bids on an automated circulation system, and I served as the literary coordinator under the Arts Department, and rotated full time and then part time into the City Manager’s staff to help form the city’s curbside recycling program.

I left for the position of data administrator at Tymnet, the data communications arm of Tymshare (the “cloud” computing provider of the 1980’s). I performed and invented techniques for data modeling and business process modeling, worked as contractor or employee for Pacific Bell, Charles Schwab, Fireman’s Fund Insurance, NASA, US Army Logistics Transformation Agency, Resort Condominiums International, Huawei (in Shenzhen), State of California CDCR, and too many other clients to mention. 15 of those years I was an employee of IBM, and worked for them as a road warrior, as well as working for the IBM Corporation itself as a client.

My current role is as a Senior Consultant for the Cutter Consortium, where I write and consult on 21st Century enterprise architecture, and I also serve pro bono as a member of the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals.

What are the most valuable skills I use in my job?

I like to tell people that as a result of my library education and experience I tend to see the world as a classification problem! However, the most influential actual class I took in my Master’s program was an elective on systems thinking, from Bela Banathy (the father), which I almost immediately used to convince management to invest in library automation.  I’ve belonged to ISSS and INCOSE in the systems world, and I see the world as a set of systems within systems interrelating with other systems of systems — as well as a classification problem. :-)

Contact Permission

It is OK to contact this alum.

Send email to: Doug McDavid