Meredith FarkasI wrote a blog post about how our profession's (and society's) overvaluing of innovation denigrates the critical work of maintenance. "Valuing maintenance" https://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2022/12/14/valuing-maintenance/ I spent a lot of my career thinking that innovation was the work I should aim for and maintenance was just drudgery. We're socialized to see it that way and it's not only offensive to those in roles focused primarily on maintenance, but dead wrong about which is more important.
Alex Golub@librarianmer This is fantastic. I would even go a bit farther and say that genuine innovation builds on what has come before -- ideally maintenance and innovation work together. Much of what is called 'innovation' is actually mostly about disavowal and/or destruction.
@Alex_Golub I agree 100%. The goal of innovation shouldn't be to disrupt or destroy everything that currently exists, because it's likely there are good things in the mix to build upon. And yeah, I'd even go beyond disavowal and destruction and I'd say that the goal is often about stroking their own egos or helping them advance in their field. Blech.
@librarianmer Indeed. Although, in an attempt to reign in my bias in this regard, I have to admit that some people are just not aware of maintenance either because they're clueless or had bad teachers. Teaching people about maintenance, as you've done, is a key part of doing maintenance!