How Tech Projects Fail: Learning Lessons for the Future

摘要

The field of Information Science is a fluid one. In many respects it has become the flip side of the Information Technology (IT) coin, forcing librarians to adapt quickly to the same changes that drive the Information Technology discipline. It is inevitable that, in Health Science Librarianship, librarians will all be faced with technology projects on an increasingly frequent timetable. These will run the gamut from the integration of new devices, to the application of new software and cloud solutions. In this environment, librarians must be flexible and willing to embrace a challenge. For some librarians this will mean operating outside their comfort zones. For others it will mean tempering their enthusiasm with prudence. This last point is a vital one; we must adapt to new technologies to remain relevant, but our resources are dwindling in a hostile economy. Information professionals, more than at any time in recent memory, must cultivate their finite resources carefully, reducing waste wherever they can. To do this, librarians must give advice and make decisions about new technology programs with careful thought and deliberation. If there is cause for concern, the librarian must be able to express those concerns clearly and within the context of past examples if they expect to be taken seriously.This article will discuss three technology programs that failed. It will seek to cull guidelines from these examples for avoiding similar pitfalls, and it will try to provide librarians with some context with which to frame any concerns that they may have about a project at their institutions.