I am VERY fortunate to have a good working relationship with one of our IT guys. I say, “oo! shiny!” and he’ll say, “OO! I’m gonna go make one!” This has been AWESOME for things like the wiki and the GameBlog. And the best part is that he encourages me to figure it out myself or to watch how it’s all done. I know that this is the exception to the rule, and I’m very glad for it!

No individual dept is perfect. IT is often harder for librarians to relate to because by nature we’re user focused, and they’re shiny focused. Those of us like me have to be ever concious of our language when speaking with patrons vs. other librarians vs. the IT guys. It’s not easy, but it is well worth the effort. I have made it a point of establishing a working relationship with my reference department and my IT dept. This often leaves me as the go between to communicate how we want to serve our patrons and what IT needs to do to make that happen. Being able to speak geek and librarianese has made things happen faster and in more exciting ways.

I guess my point is, don’t get too frustrated with your IT guys. They want to help just as much as you do, but unless you show them the way, nothing will ever get done.