[Web4lib] blue sky thinking

[Amy De Groff]

Heavens -- I can't imagine functioning w/o a programmer!

I have pushed HARD to have my programmer (a PHP expert / genius) work 
CLOSELY with our cataloger.  I think they are both on the shy side, 
preferring keyboards and monitiors to people, but it is working.  
They've both learned a lot from each other -- both have found ways to 
use their skills to help the other solve a problem. 

If we stay in silos we are doomed. Besides, we'll get all pasty looking 
from lack of oxygen/ sun/ etc.

abd


Amy Begg De Groff
Library Technology Services Department Head
Howard County Library 
www.hclibrary.org 

voice: 410-313-7985 
cell: 443-474-0741 
fax: 410-313-7864
e-mail: degroffa at hclibrary.org
IM: abdegroff



John Fereira wrote:

> McHale, Nina wrote:
>
>> At Computers in Libraries this past March, there was a session about 
>> how to communicate with IT folks. There were a few minutes left after 
>> the presenter finished, so he asked the audience to share their 
>> experiences on the topic.  One guy raised his hand, and said, "Get IT 
>> people to come to your conferences! I'm not a librarian; I'm IT 
>> support, and I've learned so much about the way you all think!" The 
>> room broke out into applause.
>>
>>   
>
> I've been following this thread with interest as I also work in IT.  
> In my case, however my unit library (1 of 20 on campus) has a fully 
> staffed IT department consisting for 5 full time programmer/analyst, a 
> unix system administrator, a public access computing support person, a 
> staff computer support person, and an operations manager.  In addition 
> to my programming/systems analysts responsibilities I am also the 
> technology strategist and a system architect in the group.
> About five years ago I attended a LITA conference.  I attended 
> sessions for two full days and in almost every one of the them there 
> was a common phrase used.  That was, "you don't have to be a 
> programmer to do this" or something along those lines.  After two day 
> of hearing that I made sure that I filled on my conference evaluation 
> form where I mentioned the oft-used phrase and the alienation I felt 
> because I *was* a programmer.  Looking over the attendance lists 
> showed that I was one of only a handful that, according to the 
> provided job titles, was an IT person.  In other words, if increased 
> participation from IT people (support and developers) is desired then 
> a welcoming environment needs to exist rather than a "we can do this 
> without programmers" mentality.
>
> To be fair, I attended a LITA conference a couple of years ago and 
> there seemed be a much higher representation of IT people and much 
> better communication.  In fact, I did a collaborative presentation 
> with Eric Morgan at that conference.
>
>
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