Blogs and Libraries

Librarians are enthusiastic about blogging. Many have started library blogs to enable their patrons to interact with library staff. Blogging fans suggest that blogs are a good way to build a sense of community – but it seems that most library blogs are used to inform patrons of library services or new acquisitions. Should libraries be encouraging more patron participation or is it OK that no one wants to talk to the library?

Blogs are a great way for a librarian to keep up to date. Writing posts encourages a librarian to find out what other professionals are talking about. Blogs are full of current information. However blogs are generally just the personal thoughts and ideas of the author, so it is wise to investigate the credentials of a blogger.

Collaborative blogs are useful for library staff to share thoughts and ideas.

Blogs could play a bigger role in libraries – they could be used to share the library’s philosophy with the public. Blogs for specific interests groups can be set up to get patrons talking to each other. But a blog can take up a lot of time. They must be maintained – no one reads a blog with old news. I guess librarians have to decide if blogs are a good use of their time.

What to do when the system fails?

Nightmare senario – the whole system has crashed. No one knows why. What does the systems librarian do now?

Ideally the system should fixed – which involves diagnosing the problem. Mobilising the technical support team. Is it a big problem, is there a workaround which will get the system up and running again?

But what about the users? They need to be informed about what is going on and how long you anticipate the problem to last.

How does one person deal with all the necessary tasks involved. Of course the answer planning. A systems librarian needs to develop a Crisis Plan which can be put into action, when a crisis arises.

Our course has discussed the benefits of such plans, but I wonder how people go about creating them. Does everyone start from scratch with their own plan? Is there a crisis plan template out there that everyone is using?

Do we need a systems librarian?

Today we discussed what do systems librarians do? What tasks do they perform on a typical day? Of course there is the usually meetings with vendors, training staff and users to use new technologies, planning new implemenations and then there is dealing with technical crisis. At least one systems librarian seems to spend a lot of time dealing with printer problems – I wonder is it necessary to have an MLIS to deal with this issue? If there are too few systems librarians do we need to better define the tasks which actually require a systems librarian. And leave the printer problems to a computer techie, who can probably find a better solution anyway.

What makes a systems librarian?

In our systems class we have been grappling with the “what is a systems librarian” issue. Recent blog postings by Jennifer Macaulay and Corey Wallis have pondered similar issues.

While systems librarians can have many roles, the one thing they appear to have in common is an ability to bridge the gap between the library and techie worlds. So the big questions becomes how do you learn both languages? And are library schools providing the courses to enable graduates to fulfill this role?

The MLS program equips a graduate to understand library issues. But I do not believe that many schools provide the courses to help a graduate to understanding of the technical issues involved in a library.

In Hiring a systems librarian Dorothea Salo writes that “systems librarians are hard to find”. If we need more systems librarians is it not time that MLS programs developed the courses to train them.

Library Systems

I am a second year MLIS student. I have created this blog as part of my library systems course. This is my first experience with blogs and with library systems, so I hope to learn more about both subjects in the coming weeks.