Friday, December 11, 2009

Kicking and Screaming into the 21st Century

Actually, we've been here in the new century for nearly a decade, although some (but not all) staff, some (but not all) ICT departments, sombunall management teams, sombunall members of the public don't seem to have got up to speed yet.

Quick as a phone call
I don't intend to sound snarky, just because I use a Blackberry. Email me, I respond ASAP - and I prefer it to phonecalls, not only because they interrupt meetings, and still don't seem appropriate in the library environment, but because I have a written record of exchanges.

Email people who may check their emails every few days and you might as well have sent them a snailmail letter. So I can't use that for quick advice to all staff (20 buildings across the city).

Blogs, Wikis and other Library 2.0 tools
Similarly, although I have a blog (this one), and have set up e-learning modules through a Learning Pool channel, and also added staff FAQs to the same zone, very few people seem able (or inclined) to access them.

I would prefer to set up a Wiki structure, so that we could all contribute to hone elegant and clear FAQs - relevant to staff's everyday enquiries - but this seems a bit ambitious. Cardiff has started a Knowledge Bank wiki on the intranet, but library staff do not seem to consider it part of their space.

All this to mention a Wiki that has been set up - a Local Government Library Technology Wiki

It seems worth a visit, even if you don't intend to contribute or edit material.

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