Free kittens for your IT department?

Sometimes I read things so sensible and so useful that I want to print them out and staple them to the forehead of every librarian I know…and add two copies to mine.

Karen G. Schneider has written a beautifully grounded, good humoured piece about what it’s like to be at the receiving end of IT requests from librarians – IT and Sympathy – in ALA Techsource. It has a very clear message about chanelling technolust to what is achievable, and considering what the usually smart and well intentioned, but very overloaded, IT department may already be doing.

She includes some strategies for IT planning by non-IT departments. A very brief summary below:

1. Find out what’s already on your IT department’s plate
2. Plan for your department. Write a timeline including the most basic needs and your blue sky dreams
3. Work out what’s “free as in beer”, and what’s “free as in kittens”. If it’s the latter, who’s changing the sandbox?
4. Share your plans with IT.

Will her post stop me from jumping up and down and wanting everything shiny “now, now, now”?. Don’t know. Hope so. Maybe now I’ll add in “when, when, when” and “how,how,how” and “please,please,please” for good measure.