communication

When a computer breaks down, do you have problems communicating your issue to a techie? When you're trying to convey a technology concept to an end user, do you struggle to make clear your point? Do you feel sometimes like techies and non-techies speak diifferent languages?

The mayor of San Francisco went to jail recently to retrieve passwords from a techie gone bad. Turns out the techie with the goods was friendly and accomodating, but this is one situation we'd all rather avoid.

We're super excited to announce the arrival of audio clips to our web site. Now you can read articles about librarians and tech support staff--we call them "Spotlights"--and you can also listen to MaintainIT contributors share their exeriences, too.

As promised last week, we've got more quotes and advice on the communications conundrum. This time, we've got some advice for library tech gurus who occasionally have to struggle to make themselves understood. Following are some ideas from librarians and library techies across the country. Look for these quotes, along with other tips and techniques in the next Cookbook!
Do you:

We’ve already posted several times about communication between techies and non-techies in the library. Matt Beckstrom wrote about his communication philosophy, Sarah posted several quotes, and we published a case study about Loren MccRory at Yuba County Library. Well, the great ideas keep pouring in. This first post contains advice for librarians who want to build better relationships with their techies. I’ll write about the flipside -- advice for techies who need to talk with non-techies – in a later post.

I just came out of a meeting with our Tech Department Director and am finished with my victory lap around the library. I thought it might make a good blog to mention a small success (that's taken 3 years) for the library's web presence. I mentioned before that the attitude from IT in the recent past has been "it's just a government website" and that we were limited by incredibly strict formatting templates.

[Welcome Loren MccRory, our latest Guest Blogger! --sarah]
Today I was thinking about tech support and the "off the shelf" vs. "programming" dilemma that comes up from time to time in strategic planning brainstorming sessions with IT staff.

Seems like everyone we talk to has a story about communication between techies and staff. Here are a few of the latest...

Eric Brooks, from Placer County Library in Auburn, CA is the system-wide techie department of one:

"Some people think, ‘I don't know anything about computers,’ and they just kind of clam up when they want to talk about them. And you try to set them at ease."

Becky Heil, from Dubuque County Library in Farley, IA said:

Open entering the Nevada County Public Library, the first thing I noticed were the names on the public computers--“Groucho,” “Gummo,” “Zeppo,” “Chico,” and “Harpo”-–a fun way for the patrons to select the public computer they want to use, and a great way for staff to keep track of patron usage. No numbers to remember, or tech-specific codes, just names that are memorable and offer a human aspect to a sometimes cold and distant technology.