Todays post is work-oriented as I seek the comic so to avoid the tragic. And tragic is what I think goes around when tools are kept from workers and communication is curtailed. Not that I couldn't communicate some or all of this to colleagues but I self-censor because I feel and think that it is hopeless to pursue fixing these problems. They are problems of power and not of good sense and I don't have the power.
Power is important BUT power is so often abused! As professionals we are demeaned by the limits placed on us as we work in an environment where information is the basis of our work, information is the essence of our wider workplace (the university campus), information is the rationale for the tools we use (computers), and information is the wave of our world and yet the tools which we have to work with that information are so mightily locked down.
Below is a note to myself which I may send to colleagues at work. (I work at a university library which at this time will remain nameless).
I will momentarily try to write a more generic type of note and the see where that might go, too. OR ... perhaps I will not send it to colleagues so that our office changes but will make it a journal article.... that is funny, witty, and somewhat significant? BUT - HUMOUR is the quest because pain and suffering is the alternative!
"Folks,
I wonder what it would be like to work in our Library without computers?
Why do I wonder? Please read on and then send me your ideas which relate
to the general issues presented. If nothing else - perhaps someone can
help me lighten up about all this. I really do want to laugh sometimes
because the alternative is to cry. So... give me what you got!
(I have not seen the movie... A day without mexicans... but that idea is
something of the source of this idea - although there are other
sources.... such as the weirdnesses of our various machine systems).
I sometimes feel as if I AM OR SHOULD BE working without a computer
since
computers I use pose various problems. In addition to listing "problems"
I
also might say that communications is difficult. If actual language
issues
are not actually a barrier then hanging on phones for minutes is and
finding the one person who might know the particular problem on the
particular machine or system is a difficulty.
The problems posed include:
I log into my office workspace from a ref. desk computer and then cannot
log off and I must reboot to protect my account (at least at the
MedCenter this holds true)
And... againg at the MedCenter - I cannot log on to my new network
workspace although I can log on to my old space which I am trying to not
use since it is old and may go away??? This is so even though with an IP
number supplied by Systems which is said to absolutely be ASH (the new
machine) I get connected to the old machine.
Printing from ref. desk machines is either to a local printer or the
public printer - but not another printer in the building such as our
color
printer.
Loading a small piece of software or java-script is not allowed and
therefore I get stopped from showing faculty and students stuff they can
see and use on their own machines.
New web pages go up and old ones are hard to find and what works is
sometimes here and sometimes not here. Things get done with our
computers
quickly or slowly but more often then not without proper checking and
testing. "
No comments:
Post a Comment