'Cyberlibrarian' or 'Tech Guru'??? -Reply

[Dan Lester]

See interlinear replies below.


>>> Stephanie Stokes <stephanie at friendcalib.org> 07/10/97
03:40pm >>>

I BEGAN TO WONDER - GIVEN THE RECENT THREAD &
COMPLAINTS
How many of you are 'cyberlibrarians', not the 'tech guru' 
and hang out/lurk on this listserv because you need to be 
savy on tech talk. And in between catch a glimmer of trends, 
tips and ideas because you somehow are involved (or at
some 
point) in the process of making the Internet happen at 
your library?
-----------
I mainly hang here for tech tips.  I'm a librarian for over 30
years, always leading the way in technology, starting in the
punched card days.
=============
MY QUESTIONS ARE?
Who is doing the web surfing at your library? Are most
of you wearing both hats as 'tech' and the 'cyberscout'?
------------------
I'm the geek....I do a bit of surfing but mainly in my own areas
of personal or work interest.  I've finally got some other folks
working on their own subject areas and building guides,
resources, etc.  Still not what I'd like, but so it goes....
===================

Or is the librarian of whatever department giving you
a list they have surfed/seached/developed on their own and 
you do the coding, etc?
--------------------
Nope.  If they're gonna develop their own guides, they're
gonna make their own pages.  Period.  Always.  I'm not a
secretary.

Was more of a struggle to get them to do so in the "old days"
of 94 and 95 when you had to edit in a text editor or a
primitive html editor.  

Now that we have lots of folks on Word97 it isn't bad at all,
and many are converting old tools to web from old WP5.1 or
6.1 "handouts", updating them in Word97 to be HTML docs. 
This is happening rapidly (well, relatively) in the areas of
"intranet" or "staff" pages where folks are redoing manuals,
policies, procedures into HTML.  Meeting minutes and stats
and reports are also moving to web instead of other eformats. 
The university policy is moving to "first and official web
publication for ALL university documents".   I love it.  And I'll
take some of the credit for working with the director of IT to
get it thru the mill.  
=================
Or are the librarian/dept buiding their own page or
online departments, bring them to you to 'put this on the 
server'?
--------------------
We have a directory on the webserver for each staff member,
(all are serverroot/users/theirlogin) and we map that as their
"Y drive" on their Win95 boxes.  They know that whatever
they do there can be viewed.  Once they've made a top page
(index.html) and I link it to a higher page, I'm done.  They're
responsible for all their own content, but I'm willing to give
advice, do the training, etc.  
==========
Is WEB4LIB apart of your 'creative process' as you 'build' 
the information highway as well as a technical guide?
-------------------
Yes.

==============
You wish people would leave more postings on...what?

-----------------
Most anything.  Though I'm also tired with the kiddie porn and
such...mainly since nothing NEW has been said in
days....but I'd not cut it off.


dan



Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator
Boise State University Library, Boise, Idaho, 83725 USA
voice: 208-385-1235   fax:  208-385-1394
dlester at bsu.idbsu.edu     OR    alileste at idbsu.idbsu.edu
Cyclops' Internet Toolbox:    http://cyclops.idbsu.edu
"How can one fool make another wise?"   Kansas, 1979.