Skills for reference staff

[Steve Hooley]

        On the occasion of a senior librarian's retirement recently, our
head librarian mused that the mechanized information revolution had come
upon this man in mid-career, leaving him time to adjust and become adept
with the new technology when many librarians senior to him were resigning
early in bewilderment. Henderson Library saw this coming a while back and
organized an internal computer systems group, with a local area network and
technicians to help keep both the public and faculty/staff machines going.
When I joined this Systems Group two years ago I found that about two-thirds
of the users are eager and happy to learn, while the other third will be
mystified forever. But the non-techs, who are also some of our best
librarians, have us to call in emergencies (or non-emergencies) and so they
are much less stressed by the whole digital thing. We have classes or
seminars from time to time about things like disk maintenance or viruses
which helps lower the sress level also. But as a tech working in a library,
I'd say that librarianship is more important. Of course. Naturally. 


>I think it's pretty impractical to NOT learn how to do at least
>basic computer troubleshooting, for the reasons outlined below. I
>don't know about all of you, but my MLIS included information on
>the treatment and preservation of books, as they were the major
>tool for transmitting information. Now computers have to be included
>in that category, so everyone had better learn the same minimal
>information about them!
>
>We also have to be careful we're not masking fear of the unknown with
>exucuses such as a lack of time or inappropriate professional
>direction.
>
>-janet
>
 
>> 
>> At 11:45 AM 8/7/97 -0700, Ruth Hartman wrote:
>> >An interesting issue has surfaced on Cristal-ed, and I'm curious as to how
>> >people on this list would respond.  How much technology should a reference
>> >person be expected to learn?  The argument of some staff is that they need
>> >only be able to use the computer to access material, but anything
>> >"mechanical" is not their responsibility.  Should they be expected to do
>> >maintenance, rebooting, simple repair, etc.?
>> 
>> I'd say that depends on the library and the situation.  Ask yourself these
>> questions:  
>> 
>> "If library staff can't fix technical problems, how long will it be until
>> it gets repaired?" and "Will having this computer down that long seriously
>> inconvenience library patrons?"
>> 
>> If the answers are "a long time" and "yes" then library staff should
>> probably be trained to fix the computers.  Still, it's a judgement call.
>> 
>> -----
>> "Letters are history.  They are the savored and saved past, the 
>> instigators of memory.  Telephone calls are the ephemeral present, 
>> and play a part only in the immediate future."  --Doris Grumbach
>> Chris Shaffer     shaffer at uic.edu     http://www.uic.edu/~shaffer/
>> 
>
>
 
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 Stephen S. Hooley                "When the going gets                        
 Romulan Tech Support              weird, the weird

 Systems Group                     turn pro."

 Henderson Library                  -- Hunter S. Thompson

 Ga Southern Univ

 Statesboro, GA 30460     www2.gasou.edu/facstaff/hooleyss

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