Well, there's a lovely book on just what the nature of "impossibility" is:
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/14099349
In any event, it's a bit of stretch to consider the type of ad hoc
consortium I discussed as hiring "sufficient IT expertise within
libraries". In fact, it seems far closer to the "outsourcing" that
Tomas bemoans.
More to the point, my point is that I don't think it's reasonable to
expect a majority, or even a significant minority, of libraries
operating with 2 full-time employees and limited budgets to be able to
hire in-house IT expertise ALONG WITH expertise in all of the
following areas essential to the operation of any library: human
resources, facilities management, customer service, local politics/
advocacy, public relations, marketing, fundraising, long-term
strategic planning, accounting, state and federal legal and regulatory
issues, collection development, cataloging, reference, programming and
instruction, etc. ad nauseam.
Given this menu of functions, it seems more than a little provincial
to insist that IT expertise be accorded privileged status. And I don't
imagine many would be shocked to learn that any individual w/ serious
IT chops who could also prove himself or herself competent in all of
the above areas would be compensated at far higher rates than all but
a handful of small libraries could afford.
Cheers,
Cab Vinton, Director
Sanbornton Public Library
Sanbornton, NH
On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 3:21 PM, Tomasz Neugebauer
<Tomasz.Neugebauer_at_concordia.ca> wrote:
> 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.
Received on Tue Sep 09 2008 - 20:10:21 EDT