Whenever I introduce some new program, service, collection, or web site feature, I have a small worry that it will backfire. If I were in a large system, I'd do surveys and interviews and find out before I launched that it would be well received. Well, I'm not in a big system, so I just do it.

How a library IT Manager supports her system’s computers today, while keeping an eye on the future

In the northernmost part of Kentucky, Boone County Public Library is a relative newcomer to the 210-year-old county. It was only 35 years ago when the library was imagined, and has been a part of Boone County for 32 years. Since then, the library has wasted little time in catching up: today there are five branches meeting the needs of over 100,000 people. Boone County's rapid growth (it’s been among the top 50 fastest-growing counties in the United States) and prosperity have given the library the added benefit of an unusually generous budget.

This month at the FLA conference in St. Pete Beach, FL, Sherry Millington, the Director of Suwannee River Regional Library, took part in the MaintainIT presentation, "Leading the Way: Stories from the Front Lines of Public Computing." As part of her talk, she spoke about techniques her library uses to save money and to keep aging technology out of the landfill. This is no easy task: Suwannee River Regional Library serves a rural community, and Sherry admitted that implementing green technology practices can be a difficult proposition.

Welcome Sharon Moreland, our most recent guest blogger!

Sharon is the Director at the Tonganoxie Public Library in Kansas, and a contributor to the Cookbooks. Sharon will be a regular blogger for MaintainIT, telling the tale of her experiences with Koha as her library starts a new chapter with open source.

Welcome, Sharon!
(Oh, and I was the one who added the photo of Sharon to her post. I couldn't help myself!) :)
-sarah

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At a dinner party last weekend, someone asked the host if she cooked meals for her family during the week. The cook responded favorably, admitting that she had a few tried and true recipes in heavy rotation. My dinner mate followed up with, "what are your favorite go-to recipes?"

On April 16th, we launched our first series of 30-minute webinars, designed to share information from libraries in a quick format so you can get started today. This month, Be Astengo from the Alachua County Library District shared her perspectives on her library's laptop checkout program. If you missed it--you're in luck!

Want to start a new project, but don’t know what to do first? Feel strapped for time?

As promised last week, we've got more quotes and advice on the communications conundrum. This time, we've got some advice for library tech gurus who occasionally have to struggle to make themselves understood. Following are some ideas from librarians and library techies across the country. Look for these quotes, along with other tips and techniques in the next Cookbook!

Do you:

We’ve already posted several times about communication between techies and non-techies in the library. Matt Beckstrom wrote about his communication philosophy, Sarah posted several quotes, and we published a case study about Loren MccRory at Yuba County Library. Well, the great ideas keep pouring in. This first post contains advice for librarians who want to build better relationships with their techies. I’ll write about the flipside -- advice for techies who need to talk with non-techies – in a later post.

We've been hearing a lot lately about the wonders of the state master contract. In most states, the government has negotiated deals with a variety of vendors, obtaining steep discounts that local government agencies can take advantage of. You can buy hardware, software, supplies, even cars off of state master contracts. Not every state has this great arrangement, but most do. Also, the details vary widely from state to state.

Benefits of State Master Contracts:

• Saving money.