Reference service and computers--further reflections

[carolyn_gonzalez at medcom1.smtplink.amedd.army.mil]

Diane:

What profit is there in all this?  Zowie-kabowie!!

Be happy and take heart!  This is a time of great opportunity for the librarians
in your workplace.  

Here's the plan.  You folks in technical services and the reference staff need
to get together and invest in a few webmaster manuals.  Then a few of you study
up first and teach the whole staff webmaster skills.   Then you guys can ALL get
better paying jobs in the private sector. 

Carpe diem, 

Carolyn Ellis Gonzalez, Head Librarian
US Army.  Knowledge Management Network
phone:  (210) 221-6514
e-mail:  Carolyn_Gonzalez at medcom2.smtplink.amedd.army.mil

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    Re:  Reference service and computers--further reflections
Author: <DILEWIS at IGSRGLIB01.ER.USGS.GOV>
Date:       8/11/97 10:50 AM

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.