I was reading Michael Stephen's Tame the Web blog this morning and I ran accross his post, South Carolina Tech Express: new Blog & Phrases I Never Want to Hear Again! The image, which you can see full size on Flickr is Michael next to a screen with five phrases he never wants to hear again.

These phrases are:

1. We've always done it this way.
2. He or she is a roadblock to anything new.
3. The IT department won't let us.
4. I don't have time for_______.
5. Our director doesn't like technology.
   

I like reading Michael's blog and I find a lot of what he has to say on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 very interesting. I try to learn about the things he mentions and tweak them to fit in the medical library world. Unfortunately for Michael and the rest of us, while we might be tired of hearing excuses like IT won't let me, the director doesn't like technology, etc., that doesn't make those excuses any less true. What I think is more important and talked about less often by many Library 2.0 pushers is what to do after your IT department or director says no. Because I got news for you, when you are asking a hospital IT department (who has to deal with way more than just the library...like confidential patient data and upgrading to electronic medical records) to do something and they say no, it means no.

The key thing is what to do AFTER they say no. Do you throw up your hands and roll over and die using it as an excuse not to do anything? Or do you try harder with more evidence and more supporters at later date?

Example:
My hospital has a crummy and stiffling intranet content mangement system. The content management system forbids me from creating any sort of meaningful library webpage for my users. I cannot do any HTML coding, Javascript, etc to my webpage. It is essentially a neutered version of Microsoft Word for the web or a glorfied bulletin board. I cannot even add a search box to my library's catalog on the page, so forget about anything "new" and Library 2.0-ish like blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, etc. going on the hospital's library intranet page. It is just text and links. I am also not allowed to create anything for the library on the hospital's Internet page. To put things in perspective, this content management system is used by my hospital and three others in my system. My IT department (which is a part of the whole multi-hospital system's IT department) is not going to change content management systems just for the one librarian in the one hospital. We may not like to hear that, but that doesn't make it any less real.

Now I could take my ice cold coke, sulk and go on and do something else. After all, it is just me and my assistant running the library and there are plenty of things needing attention. Or I could be a gracious but tenacious little librarian and arm myself for another assault on the hallowed halls of the mighty multi-institutional IT department. I do a little of both. I sulk and drown my sorrows in caffiene for an hour or two and I kibbitz with my best friend who is a librarian. After that, I gather information on new web technologies and services that I and other hospital departments could provide if we were privy to using these on our intranet. I build a new case and present it yet again a couple of months or so later, from a different perspective to my IT department. If I get smacked back down, I pick myself back up and go to the soda machine and start building a file for a future case.

What has this gotten me? Well my IT people know who I am and they know that I am a technology forward kind of person. As one person said in regards to the intranet page as well as other major technology hurdles/barriers that are shared among the four hospitals, "you are the only one of the librarians to bring these problems up, and make us aware of them." I harbor no illusions that despite this compliment there isn't also a dart board with my picture on it covered in tiny holes, but I do have some small victories to count from my battles.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat." That is what I personally think Michael's slide should have been titled, instead of "5 phrases he never wants to hear again." One phrase empowers, while the other sounds like my four year old holding his ears shouting at the top of his lungs because he doesn't want to hear what I have to say.