Technology and Communication (Part I)

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.

Do you…

Challenge your techies
Use consistent and precise terminology
Describe the symptoms carefully and don’t jump to conclusions
Follow the latest technology trends and play with gadgets
Make clear that your techies aren’t miracle workers…
Open up communication channels so no one is shy about telling them their troubles

Following are some ideas from librarians and staff across the country. Look to see these and other tips and techniques in the next Cookbook!

Challenge your techies
“Well when we told the guy who's devising this new profile the types of things we wanted and what we wanted to use it for, he introduced some ideas to the staff, some of it being the Linux stuff; Edubuntu and stuff like that. And that gave him motivation and interest, because we were asking him to provide his expertise in what he knew about. So I feel like if you show them what you want and you give them a challenge, they will rise to that type of level if they're really good. We've got some really excellent guys that are working there and they do rise to the challenge.”
Claire Stafford
Madelyn Helling Public Library, CA

Use consistent and precise terminology
“Try to learn the proper terminology, and try to use it consistently. I don’t know how many times I've heard ‘the system is down’ when what happened was the on/off switch on the monitor got pressed. The person starts using terminology like ‘system’ without actually evaluating the system. They didn't turn the mouse upside down to see if the light is still on or is the green light on on the CPU unit, things like that.”
Paul Ericsson
Bemidji Public Library, MN

Describe the symptoms carefully and don’t jump to conclusions
“Be observant and don’t jump to conclusions. The story that I tell on this one is that when I was in college, I took an experimental psych class where we ran rats through mazes, and the professor would pound into us that we couldn't always draw conclusions on cause and effect. And so what I find people frequently making mistakes on is they'll describe to me a conclusion rather than focusing on what the symptom is that they're really seeing.”
Paul Ericsson
Bemidji Public Library, MN

“Instead of getting an email saying, ‘Well this computer went down and here's what happened. The patron was doing this and got this error message.’ That's what I need to help to fix the problem. Instead I get an email saying, ‘It's broken.’ And it's like, well, then I've got to spend twice as long going down there and actually doing the research and investigation to figure out what happened, what was going on, whereas if they'd spend just a couple minutes longer to help me I can help them faster. That's always a problem.”
Matt Beckstrom
Lewis & Clark Public Library, MT

Follow the latest technology trends, and play with gadgets
“Well, I would recommend looking at things like Wired magazine and some of the other introductory P.C. magazines just to get used to the language. Scan the environment, know what’s going on out there so you can talk to them intelligently about trends. Get a gadget. Have an iPod. Try and make iTunes work on your home computer. Just experiment with it and realize that it can be fun. And you’re learning new things while you’re doing it that can help you in your job. I think that’s really key. And ask your I.T. guys for help if you’re confused or if you have a problem at home or if you have difficulty with a gadget. It opens the conversation and the lines of communication.”
Stephanie Beverage
Orange County Public Library, CA

Make clear that your techies aren’t miracle workers
“When you have nontechnical staff, they don't always understand why things don't work and why you can't just push a button and have it fixed tomorrow. I frequently get complaints such as, ‘Well, this worked yesterday and it doesn't work today.’ Well, it's a web page that went down. There's nothing that I can do to fix that. You can't control when the Internet goes down from the ISP. There's nothing I can do about that except call them and hope they get it back up right away.”
Anonymous Library Director

Open up communication channels so no one is shy about telling them their troubles
“And we’re in Minnesota, and we’ve got this fabled ‘Minnesota nice.’ And it’s true, people will not do anything where they will think will put somebody out in a lot of cases. And if our staff think that we’re too busy, sometimes they don’t even call. And sometimes they’ll call and say, ‘Are you busy?’ And you have to say, ‘Well, yeah, we’re always busy, but we need to help you if you need something.’”
Jay Roos
Great River Regional Library
St. Cloud, MN

“Because people are aware that I'm a department of one, sometimes they don't want to bother me because I'm too busy to hear about their little problem that, maybe the keyboard doesn't work sometimes. Well, I wish they'd tell me, but they don't. So, a lot of times I hear about things if I visit a branch that have been ongoing, and no one's told me. “
Eric Brooks
Placer County Library, Auburn, CA

Obviously there are a lot of librarians putting a lot of thought into this topic. If you have any advice or suggestions, drop us a line and we might use your ideas on the blog or in one of our cookbooks.

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