Library IT, Reimagined

Library Information Technology (Library IT) has undergone significant changes over the past two years. Now under the leadership of Director of IT, Dale Hendrickson, the department looks forward to a time of opportunity and growth. The department has embarked on a reorganization this summer, with current staff assuming new roles and new staff being hired to support the new structure of the department. View the new organizational chart.  an external link

Agile and Responsive

The goal of the reorganization is to create a more agile and responsive Library IT with a focus on customer service. Units will have a greater depth and breadth of knowledge in their technical domain as well as more cross-training to create redundancy to reduce the impact of absences or staff departures. The reorganization is intended to deliver as much value to clients, and therefore patrons, as possible given the resources available in Library IT.

 

Functional Focus

One critical reorganizing element for Library IT is units will now be focused on functionality as opposed to specific products. The functional focus of the units clarifies roles and creates standardization of business processes and practices, ultimately fostering greater consistency across the department. Previously, basing units on specific products created multiple channels of communication in-and-out of Library IT, exposed silos of support to our clients, and limited the breadth of shared knowledge. The goal of the reorganization is to create a process-driven organization with a common set of guidelines and operating procedures.

Due to the small size of Library IT, special attention will need to be paid to those individuals that may have functional responsibilities that fall into more than one functional unit, for example, Kalee Sprague as the Library IT Quicksearch owner and as Technical Team Lead, Software Engineering & Senior Systems Librarian for Integrated Access. This will require frequent and open communication within Library IT to ensure communication flows between the functional units.

Standardization in Communications and Procedures

A substantial effort has been made towards greater communication and increased transparency of Library IT activities and operations. Communication channels for clients as well as standardized business processes and practices will be simplified and standardized. Simplified channels for requesting services from clients will be defined and shared to form a mutual understanding of how communication flows in-and-out of Library IT.

New Structure

The new structure of Library IT will consist of four units; their name changes are more closely aligned with the services they provide.

  • Client Services & IT Operations (Ray Frohlich): Increased client relations and service management responsibilities, coordination of Library IT internal operations and standard operating procedures, continuous improvement
  • End-Point Technology & Support (Beatrice Richardson): No changes to current activities the name change recognizes the unit’s responsibilities beyond workstations
  • DevOps & Infrastructure (Bob Rice): Responsible for all YUL supported testing and production systems
  • Engineering Teams: Team Hopper (Kalee Sprague) and Team Turing (Lakeisha Robinson). The two teams will be able to work jointly or independently. They will standardize software development workflow, integrate test-driven development practices and increase depth and breadth of application knowledge across both teams.

Same Staff, New Title

Several staff members have transitioned into roles that have a new focus or additional responsibilities based on the reorganization.

Bob Rice is now a Tech Lead, DevOps & Infrastructure with the same responsibilities but is now reporting to the Director, Library IT.

Kalee Sprague is now Technical Team Lead, Software Engineering & Senior Systems Librarian for Integrated Access for Engineer Team Hopper and reports to the Director, Library IT.

Lakeisha Robinson is now Technical Team Lead, Software Engineering for Engineering Team Turing and reports to the Director, Library IT.

Melissa Wisner is now a Project Portfolio and Project Management Librarian with new responsibilities:

  • Added responsibilities related to managing the Library IT portfolio of projects
  • Increased project management responsibilities

Yue Ji is now a Principal Full Stack Engineer with Engineering Team Hopper with new responsibilities:

  • Increased technical leadership
  • Increased responsibilities evaluating YUL processes and needs

Tracy MacMath is now a Senior Front-End Engineer with Engineering Team Hopper.

New Positions Created

With the new structure, several positions have been created:

Manager, Service Portfolio & Client Engagement within Client Services & IT Operations which will coordinate communication and organize all YUL services and applications under the responsibility of Library IT.

Windows Solution Programmer within DevOps & Infrastructure (Two-Year Term) to supports Ladybird, ILLiad, Ares, Aeon, Single Sign-on, and other Microsoft based systems and applications.

Junior Full Stack Engineers within Engineering Team Hopper and Engineering Team Turing and will support software development for Voyager, FindIt, Quicksearch, Ladybird, all custom and extended applications.

Junior Front-End Engineer within Engineering Team Hopper (Two Year Grant Funded) to support user Interface, primarily for Emulation as a Service, but other applications such as Voyager, FindIt, Quicksearch, Ladybird, and other custom and extended applications.

IT Support Technician within End-Point Technologies and Support (Tentative) to support end-point technologies with special focus on media technology in offices, meeting rooms, classrooms, and public spaces in the YUL

 

Library IT is excited about the upcoming changes and we look forward to sharing more information about the reorganization as it takes shape. Stay Tuned!

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