Staticfree Blog

J Baumgart wrote about last Thursday's dinner. She mentioned how the small group of techies at our end of the table had an unusual fondness for librarians. Like artsy, bi chicks, I think there's a strong similarity between the personalities of librarians and techies.

I have a feeling that one of the main reasons computer techies appreciate librarians is because they both understand exactly how challenging it is to wrangle large quantities of data. This might seem specific, but it takes a certain type who can look holistically on a subject and make organizational judgments on it. Unlike managerial types, both techies and librarians tend to get their hands dirty in the process as they are both frequently the designer and the builder of a given project.

Techies frequently are behind-the-scenes and like being that way. Librarians, on the other hand, generally have to deal with the actual users. The long battle of techie-vs-user is solved by establishing a human buffer between them - the only problem is that the buffer generally loses a great deal of signal from the users. For example, if a user complains about a problem with the user interface of a tool, often the buffer between the techie and user will write it up as user error and ignore it. Librarians, however, tend to know better. They know the tech (at least from a maintainer's point of view) and they know the users (however much they wish they didn't). Techies can, on a base level, appreciate the librarians for being intelligent user filters.

And it's not just what they do, but the attitude in which you do it. When dealing with large quantities of data on a computer, a small misstep can lead to large-scale destruction. Without careful foresight on an organizational scheme, you will have to deal with large-scale reorganization. Both require a careful-but-firm approach to dealing with things.

Lastly, I find that people who can grok the power of information are intellectually hot. When it comes to intellectual attractiveness, librarians are supermodels.