"On the L2 Train"

I feel like I've been writing too much about library stuff lately and vowed to myself to throw in some more raccoonish stuff, but I like this discussion between Michael Stephens and John Blyberg enough to risk boring my non-library readers to death.  (Never fear...Friday finds me in a new city, San Antonio, for five days and although it'll be a library conference, I hope to wring as much fun and color and camraderie out of it as possible.)

Anyways, what I like about this L2 discussion is that both John and Michael handle the IT v. Librarian issue so much more fully and capably than I've done and offer really great suggestions for bridging the gap, if one exists, in your workplace.  I particularly like Michael's idea:

I think one of the most important things an administrator or planning librarian could do in the next few months is make sure to include how librarians, IT staff members, and even the public can get together to iron out what future services and goals the library should have. Maybe we need a good-ol' mash up of IT and librarians working closely on all projects instead of that “us-versus-them" thing we sometimes hear about.

John is also quick to point out that this is not an issue specific to libraries and says

there is no magic to IT, and the only barriers standing between any two departments are miscommunication and ego.

Where's the line for the mash-up? I'd like to butt in and get this party started.