We have a shared folder with documentation, at various levels of updatedness...  I've managed to get to a point where there's three of us sharing our 'library IT' responsibilities. We've each developed our specialties but work together so we all know the basics of everything. That means when one person goes on leave and another is sick there's still someone who can keep things running.

For other teams, even where we're one deep we work hard to have each person also be backup for some other function(s) so we don't have to shut down interloans (for example) every time the interloans person goes on leave.

Our URL/password management system isn't pretty so I won't talk about it here(!) but it's functional at least. We have one system for managing the 'library IT' stuff (ie catalogue, website, repositories, EZproxy) and a separate-but-similar system for the people managing the 'collections' stuff (ie database administration accounts).

Deborah
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Deborah Fitchett (she/her) MLIS, RLIANZA
Associate University Librarian, Digital Scholarship

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Learning, Teaching and Library – Te Whare Pūrākau
PO Box 85064, Lincoln University
Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
+64 3 423 0358
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ltl.lincoln.ac.nz

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Lincoln University
Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki
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-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Hammer, Erich F
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2023 5:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] How does your library manage internal utilities metadata?

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Between administrative interfaces for internal and third-party Library service applications, IT/networking services, support services, etc., I have around 3 dozen bookmarks just to (barely) manage my responsibilities.  That doesn't include the various forms for requesting other people do other things with their tools/utilities.  The other departments like Access Services, Reference, Archives, Purchasing, HR etc. have their own utilities and services for their needs, and I've been wondering if anyone is actually keeping track of all of these internal needs in case someone else suddenly needs to take over any particular job.  Because of reduced staffing, there is almost no redundancy, thus, I know unquestionably that should I get hit by the Lotto bus, there are lesser-used-but-still-vital systems/services that nobody else knows how to access.  They might know of them and are probably smart enough to figure out at least some basics if plopped in front of them, but how to get to them has limited/no documentation.

I've been thinking that our fundamental function is keeping track of information, so shouldn't the Library also *collectively* keep track of all the tools/utilities necessary to keep the library functioning?  I imagine that just a giant list would be too overwhelming when an individual employee might only need a small percentage of them, so some means of indexing/searching is probably required.  Does anyone here do have a shared/collective solution, or does each department (or worse, individual) just keep that information separately and internally?  Do you use a third-party product (what?), or have you constructed your own solution?  Do you keep track of shared credentials or the individual staff members who hold credentials?

Thanks,
Erich


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Erich Hammer            Head of Library Systems
[log in to unmask]         University Libraries
518-442-3891              University @ Albany

The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum.

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