Telecommuting Librarians

[Karen G. Schneider]

(Please forward to pertinent discussion lists.)

Do you telecommute?  Or would you like to?

For my next column in American Libraries, I'd like to hear from librarians
that are telecommuting, or libraries that have policies supporting
telecommuting.  You could be telecommuting two hours a month, or have an
entirely virtual job; telecommute due to occasional circumstance (bad
weather, family needs), or on a regular basis. I'm interested in the gamut.
If you think telecommuting is a bad idea, I'd like to hear that too.

I'm interested in why you telecommute, what tools you need to do your job,
what you can accomplish remotely, what you can't accomplish remotely, what
you miss about not being "in person," and what you really like about it.
Your setting (home office, on the road, patio table) would be a nice touch,
and so would your wardrobe (during one snowstorm, for example, I wondered if
I was the first person to barcode books into DRA's NETCAT while wearing
bunny slippers).

Finally, I'd like to hear your suggestions for library tasks that could be
accomplished as well or more effectively through telecommuting.  Be as
inventive as you want--for example, you might want to deal with annoying
patrons through a hologram you project from a computer miles away... and if
you have strong feelings about jobs that can never translate well to the
online environment, include those as well.

Please include name, organization, city, state (and country, if outside the
U.S.), and your email address.

Hope to hear from you--as always, over the wire... submissions are due by  9
p.m. EST Thursday, June 29.

Karen G. Schneider kgs at bluehighways.com
Assistant Director of Technology
Shenendehowa Public Library, Clifton Park, NY
http://www.shenpublib.org