The claim that some sort of "impossibility" is the cause of insufficient IT expertise within libraries is an attempt to shift the responsibility for a decision or series of decisions or policies that result in this insufficiency to an immutable natural law. IT expertise within libraries is not a natural phenomenon, ruled by some sort of natural unchangeable law that is beyond our control. Administrators and policy makers within libraries (including university administrations and governments) make the decisions that result in the current state of things.
There are certainly libraries that have understood the importance of IT, and hired appropriately, NCSU is probably a good example, as was pointed out by Charley. I have to admit that I thought about listing NCSU in my original post, but I decided that it was not necessary. My point is that librarians and the administrators who make decisions that impact the state of libraries need to take responsibility. IT expertise within libraries is something that is within their control, and unfortunately, IT expertise is still not on top of the agenda for many libraries, for many reasons. I listed one such reason: unfortunately, the question of who is responsible for library IT development - librarians or software engineers - is still problematic.
Cab, it is true that I am not familiar with your particular situation, but are you saying that developing IT expertise is, in your case, the result of 'an impossibility'? That seems to be contradicted by your own statements about the fact that the reason for the failure in hiring someone cooperatively between a number of local small libraries was due to logistical aspects of how to divide the work and compensation between the different libraries.
Tomasz Neugebauer
Digital Projects & Systems Development Librarian
tomasz.neugebauer_at_concordia.ca
Concordia University Libraries
1400 de Maisonneuve West (LB 341-3)
Tel.: (514) 848-2424 ex. 7738
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Cab Vinton
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 5:52 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Commercial Vendors and Open Source Software
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Tomasz's comments are a gross
over-simplification and apply only to larger libraries and library
systems.
Roughly a third of US public libraries serve populations under 3,000
and have fewer than 3 FTE's. Our total annual budget is around $110k
and I can assure you that hiring a qualified IT pro is out of the
question for us.
I worked with a local IT guy to try to develop a model for hiring
someone cooperatively between a number of local small libraries but
without success. We got hung up on the logistical aspects of how to
divide the work and compensation between the different libraries.
A consortium would solve the problem, but good luck selling that idea
in a state whose motto is "Live free or die" :-)
Cab Vinton, Director
Sanbornton Public Library
Sanbornton, NH
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 11:47 AM, Tomasz Neugebauer
<Tomasz.Neugebauer_at_concordia.ca> wrote:
> I think that libraries *choose* not hire people with information technology skills. Hiring an IT professional with project management expertise might be perceived as an admission that librarians are not self-sufficient, that they need software engineers and information systems analysts to innovate the library. Libraries attempt to hide this "insufficiency" by choosing instead to 'outsource' IT needs. The idea here is to buy the library technology needs like a product, just like they have been buying books - business as usual. The result is the perpetuation of insufficient information technology expertise within libraries. This is a choice (a mistake), not a result of 'impossibility'.
Received on Tue Sep 09 2008 - 13:56:34 EDT