Teaching someone to roller skate in a windstorm

(this is a long post and not about a specific Evergreen issue.)

That's how I am feeling at times as I show this product to my staff. A slew of negative emotions can arise and then I have to tell myself what I tell others at the desk - " chill - it's not a kidney - no-one will die if (insert problem here)"

I also need to remind myself that it's not me but the system. And if I were just learning this for myself I could roll more easily with the punches but needing to teach it to others by a certain date is even more stressful.

I think it would be helpful if we could name more specifically the bigger issues around our concerns. (I will be using my experience doing software for Raytheon, GM and Draper labs. And then my stint as a math teacher). Naming things makes them less scary. And that is what is happening - we are experiencing fear. And did you know you can't learn and be fearful at the same time? The brain is hardwired this way. Math is a fearful subject for a number of students and to be effective it was crucial to get over the fear which was always in the background ready to pounce. I was intentional about my light hearted approach and liberal use of humor so that students did not dread coming to class and many actually looked forward to learning. I was also considered the hardest teacher in the school with the toughest grading. The bottom line was that the students acquired the skills - no matter what I had to do.

Applying this to us with Evergreen means we each need to find something that really makes us laugh. Seriously. Something like a one of those silly cat videos on YouTube. Something that gives you a belly laugh and you can do several times a day. You ask: How will I explain watching cat videos to my boss? Get a doctor's note and tell them it's medicinal.

Now that we know what is happening, I will attempt to explain why it's happening. The bottom line is that given our chosen profession - librarians - we are visual learners and as a result are most comfortable learning by reading . (The other two types of learning are auditory and kinetic). The problem here is that we have been given so little to read. This is a big handicap for us so we are starting the process already hampered. The method we are using to learn this is the same one used in medieval times - the apprenticeship - usually a decade long 'show and tell session' - great for kinetic and auditory learners. And two months is a bit shorter than 10 years...

So why is there essentially nothing to read? As usual the basic reason is money. The people who develop the code and create the system are not tasked also with the job of explaining it - either by writing a user manual or teaching a training session. It is the rare techie person who is also a good teacher to "civilians". And this is no slight on them. Asking them to do this is like expecting Einstein to teach algebra. So additional resources would be needed to bring in someone to write that user manual. This is an automatic when creating software for the military or NASA. Can anyone say "O rings?" The DoD has billions it will spend to make sure Private Smith can understand how to fix that NM786 under fire. Today more and more software makers are releasing software w/out documentation expecting other publishers to see an opportunity and publish manuals (like the Dummy series). For Open Source software ( "owned" by everyone) there is not as much demand unless it is very very widely used like the UNIX operating system. Large library systems have assembled some good documentation on Evergreen because they could afford to. Some of these have put them on the web.

Then there is the issue of instability. The Evergreen we had modified for MVLC began with some bugs. The modifications introduced more bugs. Add that to the fact we sat in the circ training where it turns out we weren't learning our MVLC system but one with all the bells and whistles. Then there was the confusion about the permissions...roller skating in a windstorm.

In the future, our consortium and others may see it as a wise move to pay for better training and user manuals up front. Ten hours of labor devoted to writing a manual may eliminate 100 hours of front line staff losing their minds.