Techies et. al.

[Feldman, Richard (CAM)]

Just wanted to express my appreciation to the participants on this listserv 
for making it the place where I get exposed to the most stimulating 
discussions regarding the professional issues most of interest to me, even if 
these discussions are often tangential to the stated purpose of the list.  
Perhaps there's another list where people grapple on a regular basis with 
such issues as what form the relationship between librarians and computer 
professionals should take in the design, implementation, evaluation, and 
modification of information retrieval systems, and which skills each 
profession should bring to the relationship, but I don't know about it.

I see the paradigms of librarianship and computer science each bringing some 
valuable attitudes and insights to the process of stating and solving 
information-related problems but each as having significant holes.  There are 
several ways around these holes - you can construct teams which include
representatives from both disciplines, or you can find people with grounding 
in both.  When I discovered information science (as in "library and 
information science"), I hoped that that would be generally accepted as the 
logical hybrid or confluence discipline, but that doesn't seem to have 
happened.

Re: techie - I use "techie" both as an adjective and a noun as an 
abbreviation for a variety of phrases beginning with either "technical" or 
"technological", e.g., "technologically skilled."  I usually use it with 
generally positive overtones, although I think I've also used it somewhat 
derogatorily on occasion.  However, if someone didn't like the word applied 
to him/her, I would respect that.  I certainly apply it to myself on 
occasion, "I'm the main techie in my library."

And Karen, the dictionary definitions of "whence" include "from" or some 
other preposition as part of it, so you don't need to add the "from".

Richard

Richard Feldman
Technical Reference Center
Volpe Center, U.S. D.O.T.
Cambridge, MA
feldman at volpe3.dot.gov
PH: 617 494-2272
FX: 617 494-3125