Summary: Organizational placement of librarians

[Janet Kaul]

Thanks to all the responses to my questions on where in the
organization the web librarian should be. A few of you requested
that I publish a summary to the list. The reponses came down as
follows:

In IS organization: 4 votes
Reasons: In an engineering company, that's where the money and the
clout is. Also makes you less likely to be downsized.

In Marketing/Business/Communications: 2 votes
Reasons: More aligned with content interests, dissemination of info
is appropriate there, technology changes rapidly, but business reasons/
goals remain consistent. More career flexibility.

The answer I liked the best came from Michael Squires at Sequent,
who copied all of you. They have a CIO and a CKO (Chief Knowledge
Officer). I think the differentiation between information systems
and information management is very forward-thinking.

I have, by the way, gone with the engineering group, as they are
moving the marketing group physically away from the engineers, and this
is not something I can afford in my present function. But I've
talked with my new manager about the idea of having a Knowledge
department, and he and I are working on a solution.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. This is obviously not an
easy or clearcut issue.

-Janet