Business and Tech Knowledge BOTH Needed!

[curr at mnsinc.com]

Alex, I agee with your points below.  Some months ago, somebody on the 
PACS-L list, the IU professor?, said librarians need to know more about 
graphical stuff, and my reply was similar to what you say below: how much 
could one person know, since there is so much to know, what about teams and 
using people who are very good in their specialties focusing on producing 
in that specialty? Nobody took up these and related questions, 
unfortunately. 

I think that this field has to go through cycles. There are a number of 
cycles to go through, but the most relevant ones here are what one could 
call the "Oooo ahhh phase," and the 2nd the "reality phase." The "Ooo ahh 
phase" entails being so dazzled by the possibilities and promise, as well 
as some successes in the present, which is fed by new developments, that 
decision makers inevitable favor tech types who can extend and maintain the 
"ooo ahh" experience of the technology. 

After a while, the dazzzle disappears, the glitter goes away, because that 
messy THING - reality! - intrudes!! That is, the "reality phase" sets in, 
hence the dazzle can no longer hide the fact that unbridled technological 
creativity, while solving some problems, has not solved all of the 
fundamental problems and has even created new BIG ones. Then the decision 
makeres can become, one hopes, sober enough to favor those with "business 
experience" (and the "business" in this case, being librarianship) to help 
solve those problems. (One might add as a footnote that part of the thrill 
of the ooo ahh phase is the promise of a magic bullet to solve all or 
almost all problems. But magic bullets, like unicorns, are imaginary 
things, and unfortunately, usuallly they can make us hope for a while, and 
act in specific -  many times dopey - ways because of that hope). I think 
decision makers in libraries, are still very transfixed in the "ooo ahh" 
phase and will be for a while.

Of course, a very good and sane compromise would be teams, but to use them 
effectively, even to think about using them, would require the management 
has at least begun entering the "reality phase." So now, until they get 
there, it's a waiting game. Question is, how long can we wait?

--- On Fri, 15 Nov 1996 11:08:54 -0800  Alex Fayle <alex_fayle at oma.org> 
wrote:

>     I'm beginning to get a sense that we have an either or situation 
>     happening. The other viewpoint I'm seeing is that ALL the skills 
>     needed must be in ONE person.
>     
>     I thought the 90s were all about team work, knowledge sharing, and 
>     cooperation. 



Cliff Urr
E-mail: curr at mnsinc.com
-----------------------------------------------
Galaxy Scientific Corp.
Crystal Plaza One, 2001 Jeff Davis Highway,
Suite 1107 Arlington, VA 22202
703-413-0464, ext. 242
-----------------------------------------------
Personal Home Page: http://www.mnsinc.com/curr/
-----------------------------------------------
Date: 11/15/96
Time: 3:46:59 PM