[WEB4LIB] should the library webmaster be a librarian?

[Dan Lester]

At 09:35 AM 11/19/99 -0800, Mary Beth Faccioli wrote:
>Greetings all,
>I'm fairly new to the list, and have searched the archive for posts on
>this topic, coming up short.  I am interested in opinions regarding
>library webmaster/web manager positions.  Do you feel these individuals
>ought to be MLS holders or might it be appropriate to have a
>paraprofessional in this kind of position?

Quick answer:  It all depends.

What does the webmaster do?  Is it a techie who runs a server, writes perl 
scripts, etc?  Is it someone who puts up content on a server that others 
manage?  Is it a combination?  Is it something else?

>  Also, as webmaster/web
>managers, are you contributing a whole lot of content/authoring to your
>library's pages, are are your professional staff providing
>content/authoring, with you handling more technical aspects of creating
>your sites?

I'm a webmaster, among many other things.  Many of our professional staff 
create content, but many don't.  The same is true of our paraprofessional 
staff.  In pure quantity, the majority of info on our public server is put 
up by other professionals, but the majority on our intranet is put up by 
paraprofessionals (manuals, procedures, etc.).

>   And are any of you just web folk, or do most of you handle
>additional professional responsibilities, like library instruction,
>reference, systems management, etc.

I'm liaison to four departments for collection development.  I work four 
hours a week at Reference, mainly to remind myself that I'm a genuine 
librarian, but also so I can see how patrons deal with the electronic 
resources we provide.

cheers

dan


--
Good, Fast, and Cheap: Which two of the three would you like?
Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716 USA 208-383-0165
dan at 84.com   http://www.84.com/  http://www.postcard.org/