Someone at AskMetaFilter has inquired about why so many library OPACs have human names, and Jessamyn has asked for comments, so here is what I posted as a reply:

Here’s a story about how one library accidentally gave their OPAC a personal name:

In 1999 I was working at a community college library, and we were about to go live with our first ILS.  Judie, a staff member who had been with the library since it had opened, had retired the day before the server was to be installed.  I had been promoted to her position, and so found myself, freshly promoted, standing in the server room with a half-dozen people watching the Sun technician set everything up.

The Sun tech announced that he would need a name for the server.  “Library” was the first one suggested.  I recall that I suggested “Herman”, after George Harrison’s favorite drink.  Someone else suggested “Judie”.  We all thought it was fitting.

Of course, we later found out that the name became part of the address of the server (http://judie.foo.bar) and that we couldn’t change it without a great deal of messiness.  I felt we should go with the situation and and personalize the OPAC, but it didn’t happen.

Five years later we bought a new server, changed the name to “Library” (and changed all our bookmarks, handouts, etc.) and went forth with a good, solid, generic name for the server.

The best memory, for me, was that the real Judie wouldn’t believe me (or anyone else) about the server being named after her.  I think it was several months before she finally accepted that we weren’t pulling some practical joke on her….

Jenn Riley recently posted an essay on the TechEssence blog titled Involving more librarians and library staff in technology projects.  It is well worth reading, and provokes a couple of thoughs of my own:

Every staff member, librarian, and administrator should be involved in projects.  More importantly, they should be involved in projects that involve skills they don’t currently use and information not directly related to their current job.

Why?  The more you know about what other people’s jobs entail, the better you will be able to understand how your own work fits into the bigger picture.  Additionally, you may come into contact with tools and approaches that can be applied to your area.  It is much harder to discover what you don’t know if you aren’t exploring new areas.

You also must be given room to fail.  A good administrator is not necessarily a good cataloger, and vice-versa.  Each will still benefit from working in the other’s area, and even ideas or effort that fall short will add to the organization.

Notice that I don’t specifically refer to technology, unlike the essay that inspired this.  This is because the issue is much greater than any one approach, and is helpful in more ways than we can know.

Everything is connected to everything else….