Editorial Board Thoughts: Eating Our Own Dogfood
Michael Witt · Information Technology and Libraries · 2011
I'll never forget helping one of my relatives learn how to use his first computer. We ran through the basics: turning the computer and monitor on, pointing and clicking, typing, and opening and closing windows. I went away to college, and when I came back for the holidays, he happily showed off his new abilities to send emails and create spreadsheets and such. Despite his well-earned pride, I couldn't help but notice that when he reached the edge of the desk with the mouse, he would use his other hand to place a photo album up against the desk and roll the mouse onto it, in order to reach the far right-hand side of the screen with the pointer. When I picked up his hand and the mouse and re-centered it the desk for him, I think it blew his mind. He had been using the photo album to extend the reach of the mouse and pointer for months! It occurred to me that I should have spent more time with him, not just showing him what to do, but watching him do it. Those of us working in information technology have a tremendous impact library staff productivity by virtue of the systems we select or develop and implement. People working in most facets of library operations trust and rely our hardware and software to accomplish their daily work, for which we bear a significant burden of responsibility. Are they using the best possible tools for their work? Are they using them in the best way? A great deal of effort has gone into user-centered design and improving functionality for our patrons, but in this time of reduced budgets and changing staff roles, it is important to extend similar consideration to the systems that we provision for our co-workers. At its best, information technology has the ability to save time and add value to the library by creating efficiencies and empowering people to do better and new work. Whether we are evaluating new integrated library systems or choosing the default text editor for our workstations, we are presented with opportunities to learn more about how our libraries accomplish work on the ground and reconsider the role that technology can play in helping them. The phrase your own dog food is so common in software development circles that some have begun using it as a verb. Developers engage in dogfooding by using new software themselves, internally, to identify bugs and improve usability and functionality before releasing it to users. This is a regular practice of companies such as Microsoft (1) and Google (2). Setting aside any negative connotations for the moment (Why are people eating dog food? And exactly who are the dogs in this scenario?), there is a lot that we can learn by putting ourselves in the place of our users and experiencing our systems from their perspective. …