SCLS and member library responsibilities
The information below is being posted on behalf of the SCLS Technology Planning Committee. You may see it in many places in the next few days, so sorry for the cross-posting, but we want to make sure you get a chance to contribute your thoughts! Our hope is that all of you will take the time to read these documents and respond here on the TechBits blog or by email to Tana Elias.
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The SCLS Technology Planning Committee spent the last year studying how technology is chosen, deployed and managed among our member libraries. We hosted focus groups and surveys, gathered the data, and researched how other libraries and organizations that rely on technology make decisions. For information about the Technology Planning Committee, see the Technology Planning Process blog.
In response to the feedback gathered by the committee, SCLS has made some changes, listed in this post and more changes are forthcoming, including a discussion of alternatives to current LINK governance.
The Technology Planning Committee also created some important "responsibilities" to assist in communication between SCLS technology staff and member libraries. Communication and expectations for technology staff were issues mentioned over and over in the focus groups and surveys. Two documents were created:
One document focuses on responsibilities of SCLS staff, and the other focuses on responsibilities of member libraries. The information in these documents is distilled from common themes the committee found in transcripts from focus groups and written comments in surveys.
Please take five or ten minutes to read both short documents. If you would like to respond, or ask questions, please do so by sending them directly to Tana Elias or posting them to the this blog post. These two documents will be presented to PLAC (Public Library Advisory Council) on Thursday, March 5, and will be discussed in groups at the SCLS annual meeting on April 17.
Thanks for taking a few minutes of your busy work day to reflect on the important technology services that increasingly affect library service at all levels. We look forward to continuing the discussion.
Tana Elias,
SCLS Technology Planning Committee member and Web Resources Coordinator for Madison Public Library