As we celebrate Fourth of July, I am reminded of how lucky some of us have been to be living in countries that are independent and how so many others all around the world do not have that luxury. I was born in Sri Lanka which received its independence in 1948 from the British; lived in India which received its independence from the British in 1947; and have spent the longest period of my life in the US which declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776. We all value independence so much and it is part and parcel of our DNA and we don’t even consciously think about it.

This spirit extends so much into technology too. We make independent decisions all the time – about choosing operating systems, smartphones, how we each configure our desktops, the choice we make about apps that do the same thing etc. However, just as individual independence has limits and constraints that are imposed by many other factors (cultural, political, and financial amongst many other things), so are technology choices.

Those of us who manage library and technology services are subjected to severe constraints and we listen to individual preferences of users and try to make decisions that is likely to benefit the whole community. In the process, some individual preferences are not likely to be met. This is no different than several families want to burst firecrackers, but the local ordinance says they cannot (I do understand that this is not a direct comparison, because the latter is a law, but I am sure you get the point).

Based on the results of a recent MISO survey,  it appears that we need “independence” from some of the systems we currently have in place. Since our own users have spoken, we are going to work to facilitate it. Of course, breaking free from some current systems does not bring total independence, because we will have to “depend” on alternate systems. But we will be free to find more modern, functional and efficient systems that will help us achieve our goals.