Online KMWorld CRM Media Streaming Media Faulkner Speech Technology Unisphere/DBTA
Other ITI Websites
American Library Directory Boardwalk Empire Database Trends and Applications DestinationCRM Faulkner Information Services Fulltext Sources Online InfoToday Europe KMWorld Literary Market Place Plexus Publishing Smart Customer Service Speech Technology Streaming Media Streaming Media Europe Streaming Media Producer Unisphere Research



Magazines > Computers in Libraries > June 2004
Back Index Forward
 




SUBSCRIBE NOW!
Vol. 23 No. 6 — June 2004
EDITOR'S NOTES
Managing Technology and Its Consequences
by Kathy Dempsey

I've been looking forward to this issue theme ever since we chose it last summer. To me, Managing Computers for Staff and the Public precisely describes one of the major concerns of CIL readers. I suspected that we'd get some great article queries, and I wasn't disappointed.

What I didn't anticipate, though, was how this theme would relate to a thread that ran throughout the Computers in Libraries conference that I attended just 6 weeks ago. Two or three speakers happened to use the phrase "unintended consequences" when talking about various technologies. It's not unusual: Someone creates, builds, or discovers a product that can be used for one purpose, and, unintentionally, it ends up being used in a completely different way, or it ends up creating a whole new solution--or a whole new problem.

In this issue, you get to vicariously experience some new and useful tools, and you get to see their consequences, both intended and unintended. We present to you tales of three specific software solutions for managing PCs:

• DiscoverStation allows one full-fledged PC to serve up to 10 terminals.

• DameWare lets sysadmins control, repair, and change settings on PCs from miles away.

• PC Reservation helps to smooth out the process of scheduling patrons' time slots on public access computers.

And as a bonus, we also have an overview that describes many different sorts of management tools, starting on page 24. You can read it all or simply scan it by category to read about the type of solution that can ease your computer-management tasks.

I know that every reader out there faces at least one of the challenges mentioned above; some of you face all of them. I dedicate this issue to everyone who works so hard to satisfy people's appetite for technology @ your library.

Kathy Dempsey, Editor
kdempsey@infotoday.com


Kathleen L. Dempsey is the Editor of Computers in Libraries. Her email address is: kdempsey@infotoday.com

       Back to top