Reference service and computers--further reflections

[Diane Lewis]

Our library just lost an excellent computer support person to the 
private sector.  It is the latest twist in an already volatile situation.

Reference librarians have good reason to be reluctant to do more 
than learn to boot the system and fix the different printers.  Our 
Reference staff must master and retain search strategies for our 
networked library system, multiple cd-rom databases, and Dialog. 
Try doing that with a technologically-sophisticated scientist standing
over you. 

Just booting up all the different pcs with this stuff on them
in the morning is a stress point for the Reference staff. 
The rest of us back here in Tech. Services are trying to lie 
low and avoid being drafted to serve on the desk.  But that time 
looms inevitably as we lose staff and don't replace them.   

One wonders what profit there is for anyone in a burned-out, demoralized staff? 
Diane M. Lewis, Serial Records Librarian
& Exchange Librarian
U.S. Geological Survey Library
National Center--MS 950
Reston, Virginia 20192
(703)648-4399
dilewis at igsrglib01.usgs.gov  

"Whatever the cost of our libraries,
the price is cheap compared to an 
ignorant nation."--Walter Cronkite. 

With gratitude to those who gave their lives so that
we might speak freely, the ideas and opinions expressed
herein are mine alone.