Libraries and IT: Why Can't We Just Get Along?
This is a common reoccurring topic among libraries, especially among hospital libraries. There is a very interesting podcast from the Chronicle, "Tech Therapy: Why Can't Librarians and IT Departments Just Get Along?". It is a little more focused on academic library relationships with IT departments, but there are a lot of interesting points and questions raised that hit across the board to all types of libraries. The co-hosts Scott Carlson and Warren Arbogast discuss some of the differences and similarities among the two departments. Some of the differences are social (male and female, older generation and younger generation) while other difference are primarily department focus (libraries tend to be mission driven while IT departments are task driven). Surprisingly to some people, there are some striking similarities between the two groups. These similarities can be how the interact with their clientele, rapidly changing work environment, job/profession security and value to the overall organization. I think what is most interesting are the anonymous comments the co-hosts solicited from librarians and IT regarding each other.
Max Anderson at the Cornflower blog posts about Social Software as a Malicious Tool. He describes the difficulties many medical libraries have accessing social software tools like blogs, wikis because their IT departments.
Perhaps by knowing the a little more about the differences and similarities between the two departments we can have a better understanding as to how we can get things done together. I am often asked by various people how they can get IT to listen to them or to approve of something. There is no magic formula and it might take a long time for success to happen. But you will increase your chances for better communication and getting the services you need by educating yourself about the product, going to IT early (before you decide to actually adopt the product), polite persistence, and presenting the big picture.
This doesn't work every time. There have been plenty of times I have sent emails repeatedly to my IT guy and they go unanswered. I wonder if he left the company, then out of the blue I get an email from him about something totally different. Frustrating, unfortunately the library isn't always their top priority. That is when I resort to calling them or sending the email to another IT person while CCing the non-responder. Sometimes this helps.
In the end I have found patient persistence to be the best way to get things done with IT.
Labels: Hospital Libraries, Technology
posted by The Krafty Librarian @ 10:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I think medical librarians are hampered even more since we work in an environment that is much more "locked down". Concerns over even the slightest potential of losing patient data, etc., impact us much more than simple communication problems between departments.
I agree with the idea of patient persistence and in self educating. Another approach that works is to apply our liaison methods by getting in front of the IT person and learning/speaking their language. As a librarian, my background as an internet security engineer and instructor has helped me communicate with IT.
I do not agree with the idea that libraries are simply licensing materials without adding value. If it were not for librarians, the institution would not know about the resources available to them or how to use them. That is a lot of what we do now. We learn the technology and the "user" and translate. We can work well with our IT folks by helping them understand how things feel on the user-end. And our IT folks should, and successful ones do, take advantage of that unique perspective and ability.
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