At least we don't have this problem:
Have had a meeting with colleagues from elsewhere and we've been discussing the options for our library management systems. The problem we've all got is that we've either got old systems that are starting to show their age; newer systems that have been iced suddenly because the companies concerned have been taken over by others; or newer systems that are just plain crap. We're in the happy position of being able to get by as we are for a year or so, which means that we've got to be taking a good hard look at the market at a time when the market's all over the place.
One colleague's just bought a new system and they're doing the project planning for the installation. This is always a tricky time — library management systems are necessarily complex because the whole business of the library is going through it; and very contentious because the whole business of the library is going through it. This case isn't helped by the library director's off-the-cuff announcement in a meeting the other day:
"This maintenance bill's a bit expensive. We'll let them do the installation then when everything's up and running we'll just cancel the maintenance contract and save us some money."
Some days you can see the car crash from miles away.
7 comments:
you need to come to this then: http://www.cilip.org.uk/training/suppliers/sss/mancshowcase.htm
Free pens....you can use them for prizes!
An unashamed plug! (-:
No Wii this time?
Kevin, I've nominated you on my blog to present your choice of 12 films. Cheers!
My word. The system in place for our choir library is based on little cards in a box. It works.
I wish we could, it would save me a lot of grief. Unfortunately, it's difficult to provide a modern library service with a card system and impossible to do it over more than one site. When I first started this game I used to have to produce half-yearly microfiche sets of the catalogue of stock across the whole borough and circulate them to all the branches save in the knowledge that they were out of date before the fiches got to me.
Isn't the world complicated these days? (PS: Any news of the vacancy?)
cb1: None whatsoever, sadly. We do, literally, take months or years to even advertise our vacancies.
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