Oregon position (again)

[Susan Charkes]

William Crosbie wrote:


>The truth of the matter is that we need each other.  Computer scientists,
>such as myself, need to be involved in making sure that the systems that are
>designed are easy to use, robust, and meet the needs of patrons and
>librarians.  Librarians need to be open to the notion that other disciplines
>will be involved in creating the access tools in this new medium.  Both
>groups need to realize that there are elements of these new libraries that
>will benefit from skills in other fields (graphic designers for use in WWW
>development come immediately to mind).  The future of successful information
>access is in the hands of those who are able to bridge gaps and work across
>disciplines.[...]
>Computer scientists can
>effectively act in more that a "nuts and bolts" role.  In some ways, they
>will be able to guage the effect new technology can have on how libraries
>perform their services before it becomes widely advertised in the ALA
>exhibit room.  By including interested CS folks in the planning stages, you
>can keep a leg up on the future.  (Caveat: you must have a CS person that is
>willing to work on bridging the gap from his end to understand the library


Computing technology is ubiquitous.  There is no reason that computers need
to be planned for, designed, used, programmed or exploited solely by
computer scientists.  Librarians need to think about technology as
something we possess and control, not something that we can use but know
nothing about.  Computer scientists need to design technologies that users
(not just end-users) can exploit for creative purposes. Thw Web is a prime
example of the results of that kind of approach.  The kind of
cross-disciplinary teamwork described here may tend to encourage insular
thinking (it's not MY job to understand this technology) whereas
interdisciplinary work (eg librarians as managers of technology) will
encourage innovation.

Susan Charkes
Corporate Library Services
Warner-Lambert Co.