Access 2016

This panel of four will discuss the current state of the merging of Libraries and Information Technology (IT) and the illusion we have that IT has been successfully integrated into our organizations. In many ways, IT has not found its way to the center of our organizations but continues to experience a divide from the library culture. Bringing IT to the center of Libraries has been viewed as an invasion of library work rather than an integration and a benefit.
We will also discuss the idea that library culture is not just one culture but encompasses many different cultures: cataloging, IT, admin, and public services, etc. The integration of each culture - being able to see the individual pieces fitting into the big picture - is important to the success of the library. A struggle heard often from those who have merged IT and Libraries is not seeing the importance of hearing what IT or Library departments are working on.
As technology becomes further embedded into the work of libraries, the importance of including IT in projects from the start and not just when it’s time to hand it over becomes more critical. How IT working across departments serves in the Library’s benefit (and the reverse), including library staff into IT projects related to the Library as they start and not when they are handing them over after completion, all become vital questions in the library community.