RE: [IUG] System Mgt People in Short Supply?

["Zhang, Jingping" <zhangj at marshall dot edu>]

Salary is also one of the major issues.

Jingping Zhang

Assistant Dean of Library Technology/Associate Professor

Marshall University Libraries

304-696-2326 (O) 304-654-2732 (cell)

304-696-5858 (fax)

zhangj at marshall dot edu

-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org
[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Phil Huang
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 8:18 PM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: Re: [IUG] System Mgt People in Short Supply?

Why it's hard to attract good system person working for library? From my

observation, often, librarians hold unrealistic expectations of system 
person.

To start with, recruitment announcements often heap technical
requirements 
covering all the latest or old technological know-how's and skills in IT
and 
library arenas, both in amazing breadth and depth. The result? Because
such 
know-all is a non-existence, the library either scares off good and 
down-to-earth guys or get a bunch of applicants who are not serious and 
miserably unqualified.

Second, system person operates on system level. By nature of the job,
there 
are lots of risks involved and the impact of what he/she does can be 
immediately felt system-wide. And by disposition of system person,
he/she 
tends to love challenges and to employ innovative or unconventional 
approaches to tackle tough issues. These two combined, however bright or

thoughtful he/she is, error is practically unavoidable. (Just see how
many 
thousands bugs and holes Windows has had, and how often computer system 
failures occur at airlines, banks, and your IT.)  System persons work
under 
pressure and they do blunder once in a while despite all the cautions
taken, 
but many times they receive undue blames and harsh treatment, let alone 
appreciation. During the years, I have witnessed multiple cases in which

personnel actions were handed down to programmer and system
administrator 
(both have solid librarian background as well). These are the people
that 
have written thousands of lines of programming codes to successfully
process 
millions of records to resolve many of library's chronic headaches and 
mountains of backlogs. Well, accomplishments are taken for granted, but
you 
are still doomed when a wrong button is pushed.

Phil Huang
Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park, CA 94928




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Sowder" <sowder at andrews dot edu>
To: "IUG INNOPAC List" <innopac at innopacusers dot org>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 1:41 PM
Subject: Re: [IUG] System Mgt People in Short Supply?


>I am not so sure about poking at the sacred cow.
>
> After 29 years in the computer field as programmer, systems designer,
> software development manager, in academics, business, and engineering
I
> went to grad school and got an MLS. (I believe I was the oldest
student
> in the library school.)
>
> As someone told me just today, librarians are their own tribe. They
have
> their own language and code.  Now I write software, design databases,
and
> manage the ILS here. Yeah, a lot like before, only focused on the
> library. Yes, I am also head of the MultiMedia Center, and sit on
> (sometimes endless) committees. I also create/alter load profiles,
teach
> others how to Create Lists, etc. I have two full-time people with me
in
> my department and a dozen students.
>
> It would be difficult to do what I do without knowledge of
librarianship.
> That includes how to understand and sometimes be patient with
librarians.
> Because of that, I would suggest retaining at least the preference of
> having a MLS degree. Otherwise, they may be out of there way too soon.
>
> Now I can talk to the systems people on campus and we understand each
> other. I can also talk to the librarians and we (I think) understand
> each other.
>
> I used to be Systems, now I am intentially a Systems _Librarian_.
>
> My $0.02.
>
>
> Steve Sowder                           Systems Librarian
> sowder at andrews dot edu                    Andrews University
>
> If everything is under control, you are going too slow. - Mario
Andretti
>
> On Thu, 21 Sep 2006, Gimon, Charles A wrote:
>
>>
>> > Are libraries unnecessarily limiting their pool of people for
>> computer-related positions by
>> > requiring a library science degree? Dare I poke at this sacred cow?
>>
>> Poke away, please! That sacred cow should have been shipped off to
the
>> glue factory LONG ago.
>>
>> --Charles Gimon
>>   Web Coordinator
>>   Minneapolis Public Library
>>
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