In the U.S., there's been a long history of disconnect between systems and
technical staff, and the "rest of the library," IMHO.. probably rooted in
the education, degrees, and fundamental training and interests of each
"group" somehow. How do library folks differ from systems folks,
fundamentally, and the same for librarians. Perhaps that could teach us
something about root causes.
But, I don't know the real origins of it, but it doesn't bode well for
integration and collaboration of efforts, at least at the front-lines
level.. I'm not even sure at the higher levels of our respective
professionals and work organizations that communication and collobration
taking place.. some systems staff are going to library conferences, but I
don't know how many library staff are going to ASIS, ACM, and other related
meetings..
I'd like to think we are able to bridge this "digital divide," but I'm not
sure how..
Locally, one way I know we aren't working on the same services together, and
supporting the same mission is to think of the Library's public Web site and
catalog which face out to our "patrons" or "customers."
Wouldn't we be more like collaborating colleagues if it wouldn't matter if a
Librarian or a Systems Analyst/Manager was the person [Webmaster-like] in
charge of both of those - for content, UI, design, etc.?
We've divided up management of the content from the management of the
infrastructure, and these two management groups don't seem to be as synched
up as would be ideal.. but, there's the rub.. it's been a long disconnect..
and seems to be ingrained now...
Best,
DrWeb
--
P. Michael McCulley aka DrWeb
mailto:drweb_at_san.rr.com
San Diego, CA
http://drweb.typepad.com/
Quote of the Moment:
Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
Thursday, March 22, 2007 7:13:33 PM
Received on Thu Mar 22 2007 - 20:32:49 EDT