Brown - Crash Course in Technology Planning

Many, many people provided assistance as I gathered the knowledge that would eventually become Crash Course in Technology Planning . I would like to thank my wife, Kati, for her outstanding editing and revision skills, as well as her moral support throughout this process. Diane Brown also read the first manuscript and provided excellent feedback and suggestions.

Thank you to Master Electrician Gene Van Berkum, who reviewed the chapter on electricity. A special thanks to Kyle Winward, Technology Services Librarian at Central College, for being my sounding board throughout this process and for taking the time to read a very early and very bad draft of what would eventually become this book.

Others who deserve credit here include Glenda Hunt, Director of the Adair County Public Library (Kirksville, Missouri), for her willingness to sponsor my library internship when I was still very green to the profession; Goodie Bhullar, Cindy Cotner, Rhonda Whithaus, and the entire reference team at the University of Missouri-Columbia Ellis Library for their invaluable guidance as I trained to become a professional librarian; and Dr. Thomas Kochtanek, an excellent information sciences professor, who inspired me to continue to find wavs to integrate libraries and technology.

The Scenic Regional Library (Union, Missouri) and the Pella Public Library (Pella, Iowa) both played important roles as I learned and applied my trade. Finally, I want to say thank you to the staff at Libraries Unlimited for this amazing opportunity.

I dedicate this book to my family, near and far. Thanks for believing in me and this crazy idea from the very start.

Welcome! If you've opened this book, chances are good that you are a new IT manager in a public library and that you are the only person responsible for the IT work. You may have applied for the IT position and been politely asked (or not so politely told) that IT is now your job description or, like me, been told that IT work is just one of the many hats that you have to wear on a daily basis. Fear not! This book is written for individuals with little-to-no IT training, who have suddenly found themselves thrust into responsibility for the day-to-day IT work in a small-to-medium-sized public library or other service organization. This book is ideal for those who have multiple responsibilities; it addresses customer service as well as more technical aspects, such as networking. Even though the focus is on the public library, the information in this book could also be applied to other organizations with similar missions, such as schools and churches.

Even if you have no IT experience, this book will help you find the path to becoming an IT manager who can independently set goals and manage IT projects with ease. I will guide you toward making smart, well-reasoned IT decisions and give you a workflow to find your way through any hardware or software problem.

Though no book can completely address every possible situation that may occur, in this book I will provide you with simple, generalized templates upon which you can then build knowledge specific to your organization. For example, when this book describes a "typical" network, I acknowledge that not every single network might be set up in the same way. However, the basic understanding that I provide can still serve as a platform upon which you can learn more about your specific library's circumstances.

Each of us thrust into the IT limelight has a different story with the same end: you've been made responsible for equipment and services that you may know very little about. You may be an expert at using a mouse and a keyboard, and perhaps even hooked up a computer cable once or twice, but when it comes to the inner workings of these machines or, heaven forbid, the network rack, you are in entirely foreign territory. To compound this issue, management has decided that a single person can handle the IT work for the organization, and you're it.

As the designated IT person on the staff, you may be responsible for a variety of roles. One of the most common tasks is everyday troubleshooting. You may be called upon multiple times in a single day to assist with staff and patron questions. These questions will mainly deal with how to perform various tasks on a computer, such as how to format a print job in a certain way. Other questions may deal with typical hardware and software issues, such as a patron who is having difficulty opening a file or getting his or her flash drive to work with the library computers. This book includes a guide to working with staff and a path to finding the root cause of the issue that the person is experiencing.