Shout Out to the IT Fixers-of-Things

It is a hell of a thing to get to work with people who love their jobs, truly believe in the mission of their organization, and strive to exemplify service. If you're very, very lucky, know your Ranganathan and read your Arlene Taylor diligently, and do your weeding with one eye on your collection development policy like a good librarian, some of these those people live in your IT department.


Sometimes we don't know how lucky we are until things break. I am very, very lucky.


It is even more of a hell of a thing to work with people (*cough* Griffey *cough*) who face technological failure (oh, server migration and client update, ye bitches!) with grace, communicating issues and plans for fixes for an essential library service. Add to this that whatever failures are occurring are not within his power to control or fix. And he *still* hasn't kicked or smacked me for occasionally giving him the Query Eyebrow in an attempt to ask what's going on without nagging.


So yes, today I use my blog as a platform to send the stressed Griffey, who shares some serious project monstrobsities on his plate with his staff, a thank you. Because I know not just that something is broken, but how and why it is broken, the multiple plans he & his staff have implemented for fixing the brokenness, circumstances causing holdups, and what the backup plans are.


It's not every day you find someone so open with solutions, process, and general communication. Particularly when you consider that discussion delving deep into .asp something-or-others, virtual servers, and database backups make my eyes glaze over pretty quickly.


So, a thank you to Griffey and his staff of fixers-of-things. And a recommendation to IT librarians far and wide to trust us with information we need to make decisions about library services. And an earnest wish that all of the fabulous, hardworking librarians out there get rewarded by The Great Dewey in the Sky with an IT guy like mine.


Except not mine, because you can't have him. Back away.


:P

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