Episode 14: Ole Olesen-Bagneux - From Libraries to Organizing Meaning

In the first episode of Season 2, host Dawn Brushammar is joined by librarian, researcher, author, and technology evangelist Ole Olesen-Bagneux for a wide-ranging conversation about knowledge organization, metadata, semantics, and why library and information science is more relevant today than ever before.

Ole shares how a fascination with rare books, computers, and organizing information eventually led him from Library and Information Science into enterprise data, metadata management, and AI. Along the way, he explains why the semantic foundations of organizations already exist, why metadata isn't something you simply build from scratch, and why understanding context may be the missing ingredient in many AI initiatives.

About Ole:

Ole Olesen-Bagneux is a librarian, researcher, author, and internationally recognized thought leader in metadata management, enterprise data architecture, and AI. He is Vice President and Chief Evangelist at Actian, where he helps organizations modernize their approach to data intelligence, metadata, enterprise search, and knowledge discovery. Before joining Actian, he held leadership roles in enterprise architecture and data strategy. Ole holds a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Copenhagen and is the author of The Enterprise Data Catalog and Fundamentals of Metadata Management, both published by O'Reilly Media. His work bridges traditional library and information science with modern data management, knowledge graphs, and enterprise AI.

Connect with Ole:

LinkedIn: Ole Olesen-Bagneux on LinkedIn

Actian Leadership Profile: Actian Leadership Profile

Substack: Ole Olesen-Bagneux | Substack

Books mentioned:

The Enterprise Data Catalog — Ole Olesen-Bagneux

Fundamentals of Metadata Management — Ole Olesen-Bagneux

Bridging Knowledge, Data & AI — Joseph Hilger, Lulit Tesfaye, and Zachary Wahl