We still _need_ each other... (Was Oregon again...)

[Susan Charkes]

A response to Bill Crosbie:

> Some will take the time necessary to learn these
>new technologies and make the jump to the next level.  Others will choose to
>partner with those who already have this knowledge to achieve the desired
>effect.  Neither way is better than the other, just different paths to the
>same desired outcome.  My experience has been that when partnering with
>other disciplines, I learn more about the way the members of that discipline
>approach a task.  Hopefully they learn from me, as well.
>


While I agree with the ecumenical spirit behind your comments, I do not
necessarily agree that learning about technologies and partnering both lead
to the same outcome.  Without being too hopelessly reductionist, I would
say that librarians' professional mission is to connect people with
information.  This is a communications role. The computer has evolved
rapidly from a stand-alone information processing machine to a
communications system.  It is inherently within the province of the library
profession to exploit this technology.

I am a big fan of cross-disciplinary teamwork (Apollo 13 gets my vote for
the Oscar this year) as a key to innovation.  I'm not in any way
denigrating the concept of teamwork in principle. But my point is that
librarians can, and should (and increasingly do), bring to the team a great
degree of knowledge of information technology.


>I agree with you that it _could_ encourage insular thinking, but I don't
>think that it is inevitable.  Personnally, I believe it has more to do with
>the individuals involved in the project.
>

Absolutely.  You can have individuals on a team who learn nothing from each
other and you can have people who are one-person teams.  Open-mindedness is
a crucial skill in these times.


Susan Charkes
Warner-Lambert Corporate Library