Jenn Riley recently posted an essay on the TechEssence blog titled Involving more librarians and library staff in technology projects. It is well worth reading, and provokes a couple of thoughs of my own:
Every staff member, librarian, and administrator should be involved in projects. More importantly, they should be involved in projects that involve skills they don’t currently use and information not directly related to their current job.
Why? The more you know about what other people’s jobs entail, the better you will be able to understand how your own work fits into the bigger picture. Additionally, you may come into contact with tools and approaches that can be applied to your area. It is much harder to discover what you don’t know if you aren’t exploring new areas.
You also must be given room to fail. A good administrator is not necessarily a good cataloger, and vice-versa. Each will still benefit from working in the other’s area, and even ideas or effort that fall short will add to the organization.
Notice that I don’t specifically refer to technology, unlike the essay that inspired this. This is because the issue is much greater than any one approach, and is helpful in more ways than we can know.
Everything is connected to everything else….
