A fellow student mentioned the complexity of technology planning in her blog post for the "Planning for Technology" unit. I certainly agree. As a worker-bee, my only involvement in planning, be it technological, budget, or strategic is rather after-the-fact. Or in that management effort to include the staff as 'stakeholders.'
Be all that as it may, planning of this complexity is not my nature. I hope to be eased into planning responsibilities of librarianship, and that the theory I've learned isn't lost in the politics or special interests of those at the helm. I'm encouraged that there is a wealth of information and assistance for technology planning.
Now nearly four weeks after I read the articles, I recall being amused, amazed, and overwhelmed at various readings. I randomly reopened a couple tonight to refresh my memory. In these latest days with talks of deep budget cut scenarios, Stephens' words, "Meet the Mission" echo loudly in my head. If there was ever a time and place for technolust it is long past, far away, or never to be seen again. Even though his quote from Sandra Nelson's book is now a decade old, her advice to review monthly is almost too close to semi-annual budget reductions for comfort.
Perhaps the reading I liked best was Gerding & MacKellar's very practical Applying for Technology Grants (Computers in Libraries, Jul/Aug 2006, pp. 7-8, 545-60). The advice seems sound, echos similar comments from other readings, crosses types of libraries, and provides additional resource recommendations that I thought would be quited helpful in actually producing technology plans and pursuing grant or other funding.
