[WEB4LIB] should the library webmaster be a librarian?

[Nancy C. M. Ross]

I think that it depends in part on the structure of an organization and the
way its Information staff are specialized.  I work for a law firm, which has
a information systems department, with a network analyst, systems analyst
and system administrator.  They operate the servers and do most of the
scripting.  I have recently been hired in the Information Resource Center
(library) as Webmaster for the Intranet/Extranet (but not the Internet site,
which is run by somebody else in the company).  I am the first person to
hold this position.  I do not generally provide content (except in my oen
areas of specialization), but I coordinate it, organize it and publish it to
the Intranet most of the time.  I had a strong focus on Internet training,
html, and digitization in my MLIS program.  

I browse through Webmaster and similar advertised positions regularly.  I
find that I qualify well for some and not at all well for others. It seems
that there is a fair amount of variability in what an organization means by
"Webmaster". One law firm in California, according to my supervisor, has
three full time "Webmasters" for their *intranet*.  Perhaps they are all
involved in different aspects of the job. 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nancy C. M. Ross, Ph.D., MLIS
Webmaster for Intranet/Extranet
Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren, Norris & Rieselbach, s.c.
Phone: (414) 298-8645        Email: nross at reinhartlaw.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Beth Faccioli [mailto:libmef at langate.gsu.edu]
Sent: Friday, November 19, 1999 11:35 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] should the library webmaster be a librarian?


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

Thanks,
Mary Beth Faccioli
Library Associate, Reference Collection Assistant
Georgia State University Pullen Library
libmef at langate.gsu.edu