Chris Lastovicka
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!
Jessica 🦕 
@librarianmer
This is something I've thought a lot about but not in a meaningful, put-together way like this. I often feel like I'm fighting a tide when someone on our team says, "Let's make a bunch of tutorials! That's what we are missing!" and I ask about all the time an energy that goes into planning them, creating them, and updating them. I hadn't thought of updating as maintenance exactly, but yes.
There are too many quick-makes out there that haven't been touched in years.
@librarianmer
If we make 15 things and don't go back to them, but we then make 15 more? We are creating a backlog of work that no one sees as work. It's not valued to revisit what you've done and to assess it with a critical eye after the initial "it worked!" period. It worked then, but is it working now? If not, how do we keep it working? Is it worth it?
I need to re-read your post, because it's really speaking to me.
@MLISrevenge YES! This is why with tutorial development, I'm big on thoughtful, collaborative, processes that take into account the maintenance burden of each. We have not abandoned a single tutorial we've created at PCC using a really deliberate process (and many of them were created in 2015-16); some have been updated, but they are still used in teaching b/c we were really careful in making them.
@librarianmer
That sounds amazing and I'd love to see the process work in this way. Unfortunately, most are quickly made and forgotten. I have to think more about the process of making the tutorial have a greater sense of longevity.
That sounds amazing and I'd love to see the process work in this way. Unfortunately, most are quickly made and forgotten. I have to think more about the process of making the tutorial have a greater sense of longevity.
@MLISrevenge believe me, it took a lot of trial and error to get to this place. I've been making video tutorials for 18 years and the first few years was mistake after mistake after mistake.
janepothecary@librarianmer Thank you for writing this. At this point in my career, it is something I definitely need to hear right now. I hadn’t connected the lack of appreciation of maintenance to the devaluing of care, but as someone trying to balance raising kids and work, it really spoke to me. Thank you.
Matilda@librarianmer Meredith, this is so good! I’m sending this to my instructor. She’ll want this.