Goal 2: ability to replicate

Re: my goals as a librarian: Goal 1, without actually stating it as such in a previous posting, is an ability or the capacity to be replaced with or by a cross-functional team as a solution for the work to continue if I am lost to the organization. Building this capacity is something I'm still thinking about.

Goal 2. The ability for anyone with the authority to replicate any of the activities or processes pursuant to my position as digital services librarian. How do I do this? Build systems that require the ability to duplicate activities/end results.

Specific to electronic serials management: If I generate a list of serials for evaluation purposes - for a cost-benefit analysis per title (incl. statistics), anyone at the library should be able to generate this list whether in its entirety or by call number/subject/suite/vendor.

Blogging as the new folklore and folk art?

Phil Tilney's exhibition catalogue "This Other Eden: Canadian Folk Art Outdoors" Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1999 includes a definition of folklore. Blogging sorta falls within the definition of folklore: blogging is traditional in the sense that it is a transmission/sharing information, in the act of recording and maybe the new word of mouth(?); as a product it is both concrete (infrastructure) and conceptual (language, intent, content), and; we are a members of a group that has something in common - the culture of blogging.

"Folk art is usually something one step beyond the mundane (p. 40)." Are we beyond the mundane? Are there those who rise to the top in the art of blogging?

some perspective...

When you build something, management literature says if you get hit by a car, go on sabbatical or just say "I quit", whatever you have built should continue smoothly with hardly a blip. This is a sign of good management. I can never figure out how that works when you're the only person in your department but perhaps that's where the concept of cross-functional teams comes in handy.

Our team does not reflect every department - a result of missing skills, competencies, staff and overworked staff. But the job is getting done. Buy-in may be a challenge as a result.

Gone Squirrelly

Thought it was time to venture into blogaholism...so here goes nuthin'...

We're implementing SFX (a link server http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/sfx.htm) from a standstill at the University that shall remain Nameless. You should try it sometime, it is a recipe for inciting pubcrawling.

We have no list of serials - and yes, that means we do not know what we own. Pulling journal title information from the OPAC (read Library catalogue) is like using someone else's hand to pull yet another person's teeth while both fight you the whole distance. Downloading information from publisher's websites is an object lesson in the ridiculous also.

So how are we doing it? We'll chat tomorrow.