IT and Libraries

For a Librarian to deliver a quality service they need not only to have the skills and ability to use IT but also the equipment to put those skills into practice. Poor and dated hardware, out of date applications and inadequate line speeds are at best a hindrance and at worse a serious handicap to both good customer service and productivity.

IT costs a lot of money and when you are talking about providing adequate IT for a whole service the figures can be frightening. But you have to balance the cost against the benefits, just like any business has to. It's too easy to save money by deleting IT projects, however the losses, although often hard to measure, are significant . Reduced productivity, frustrated staff and often loss of customer.