Library systems teams – more than just peripherals
| Date | 01 September 2003 |
| Published date | 01 September 2003 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830310494490 |
| Pages | 317-324 |
| Author | Lisa Tyson |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Library systems teams ±
more than just
peripherals
Lisa Tyson
Introduction
``What's it like reading books all day?'' Tell a
non-library person you are a librarian and this is
often the reaction received. Tell them that your
day involves searching databases from around
the world and designing training sessions about
their use, assessing or recommending Web sites,
fielding questions or problems from students
both on and off campus, and fixing basic
computer problems, and they may nod
knowingly. Explain you are a systems librarian
and spend your day juggling file space on a
Unix server, worrying about connection speeds
over a LAN, monitoring the efficiency of a
WAN, designing Web sites, creating metadata
for harvesting by Web crawlers, managing
authentication services for restricted access
materials, negotiating licence conditions and
diagnosing access problems from all over the
world via e-mail and telephone and watch their
eyes glaze over. Yet this and much more is
increasingly the reality for many librarians and
systems librarians.
As libraries struggle to define their place in a
technology-driven world dominated by Web
search engines and the dot.com mentality, can
the wider community be forgiven for not
understanding what a modern librarian does?
Can we, as librarians, be forgiven for being so
caught up in what we do, that we do not
promote ourselves as being able to provide the
services our clients need? Promotion of libraries
and librarians is vital in the twenty-first century
as we compete with commercial information
providers offering ``the information you need,
anywhere, as you need it''. How do we convince
the person who views libraries as irrelevant
physical buildings full of dusty books and their
home Internet connection as the font of all
knowledge, why our profession more than ever
before has a role to play? The short answer is we
cannot ± not without changing perceptions of
where librarianship fits in the technology age.
Just as the image of the computer nerd was
reinvented in the information age, so too do
librarians need to change their image.
It matters little to library users that articles are
published in library journals about librarians as
technologists (Brandt, 2001) or about the need
to build digital collections as information
gateways (Guenther, 2001), regardless of how
The author
Lisa Tyson is Library Systems Manager, University of
Western Sydney Library, Penrith South NSW, Australia.
Keywords
System monitoring, Management development,
Team management, Computers, Librarians
Abstract
The role of systems librarian is now common across a range
of library types. The methods for becoming one still vary,
with many systems librarians growing into the role without
formal training. The role of systems manager is moving
away from the person with the expertise to the management
of the people with the expertise. Systems teams are
more and more being comprised of both librarian and
non-librarian technical people. For systems librarians, our
role now is to know whom to contact when something goes
wrong and to forecast future needs. This article reviews the
role of the systems team and its place as a resource for
computer literacy training in libraries.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
317
Library Hi Tech
Volume 21 .Number 3 .2003 .pp. 317-324
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830310494490
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