TechEssence.info

When I was writing my "Top Ten Things Library Administrators Should Know About Technology" I put a message out on Twitter asking for the thoughts of my followers on that topic. And boy, did you ever respond! I decided that it would be worth following up my post with many of the things that my followers said, since as it turned out that I was pretty set on my list and I couldn't by any means include them all. Here you go, and thanks to all who participated!

Vendor solutions still require knowledgeable staff to make them work. A vendor who claims otherwise is lying.

No platform is forever. Ask not only how you'll move onto it, but how you'll move off of it.

It won't solve any of your problems without proper staffing and management policies, which you should allow techies to shape.

Administrators need to know that just because a staff member can support certain tech doesn't mean they can support all tech.

Allow your staff time and resources to experiment - even if nothing comes of it. Innovation comes with risks.

Understand where's a possible single point of failure i.e. rely on only one staff for a critical function.

Believe a staff member's opinion over a vendor's. Always. ALWAYS.

It's OK to fail.

Never depend on technology alone to save your library. Ask "why" and "how" instead of, and/or in addition to, "when" and "how much." Be prepared to answer those questions. Major technology decisions that are made in accordance with unclear policy can find any holes that may exist in that policy, and come back to burn you later. Don't be selectively blind or oblivious. You don't have to hop inside the black box, but make sure your policy can be met by how you choose to implement technology.

Don't say no. If you don't accept technology ideas from your techies, where do you think they'll come from?

more tech != less money; whether vendor or open src, requires approp expertise on staff.

Good project management practices are key.

#1 should be to TRUST those working with the technology to do the right thing with it and to listen.

if they do not know how to manage IT (most legacy lib admin do not), they should hire people who do and get out of their way

Technology is cheap. Having knowledgeable people costs money.

It's not scary; The youngest people on staff aren't automatically techno-geeks.

If you don't know about something, trust the people who do.

Delegate the discovery phase to those who can dedicate more resources to coming up with concise answers to "how," and justify "why."