Procuring and other vices

The White Tornado has told us that on Tuesday, April 10, the Duchy Bored will make the decision to buy Destiny for the libraries. (Actually, the decision is secret, so White Tornado is not allowed to know that, but we all assume it.) If you look at the Bored Agenda you will see why they are bored, but you will also see RFP No. 07-94-12 labeled Resource Management System. Is that it? Why doesn't it mention libraries anywhere? If I google resource management system, I get a lot of hits from construction companies and a few more from networking companies, none from library automation vendors. However, we'll assume that the Black Queen hasn't once again lied to the White Tornado (Silver's "new" robes) and that RFP No. 07-94-12 is for libraries. Let's go over the normal RFP process. When a public agency wants to buy something expensive, they have to publicly ask for bids and then pick from the bidders (or start over). The last time the Duchy bought library automation, a committee got together, wrote an RFP (Request for Proposal), Duchy Purchasing sent it to a bunch of library vendors as well as posting it publicly somewhere. They got back responses and gave them to the library committee. The library committee went over the responses and picked what seemed to be the best vendor. The committee was pretty much self-selected, anyone who wanted to join in was allowed. Silver and Gold had conflicts of interest and couldn't be on the committee. This fall, the Black Queen again asked for volunteers to be on a committee. Silver had resolved the conflict of interest and volunteered this time along with a reasonable sampling of others from all levels. Gold was semi-retired and didn't want to make choices that others would have to live with. (Of course, that particular ethic has never bothered the Black Queen or GoG, or the Lime Green Knight, has it?) The committee met, looked over Destiny, decided that they could probably live with it...but they had some questions that needed resolution before a final decision was made. They wanted to see a real test of the system on the Duchy's network. In due course, the Lime Green Knight announced that there would be an RFP. The committee waited to be called together again to write the RFP and then evaluate the results...and waited and waited. The committee has not yet been called together again. However, Tuesday the Bored is supposed to be voting on the decision made by "the committee". Who? What? Since the decision was not made by the committee that was formed to make the decision, who did make it? Who was the RFP sent to? What companies sent responses back? How many responses were there? When the White Tornado found out that an RFP relating to libraries was being evaluated, she made an effort to be part of that evaluation and was told that the RFP responses were Classified and she didn't Need to Know. What? By law, all of this has to been made public after the Bored votes on Tuesday. By then it will be a little too late won't it? Has the Bored been allowed to see the RFP? Maybe they don't Need To Know, either. Does the Bored know and approve of all of this secrecy? Does Duke Phfffr? We were promised a committee decision made by members of the real library community. Was this decision made by members of the real library community? Who are they?

One of the big issues with library automation currently is single centralized database or separate site databases. We currently have separate independent site databases. From so many standpoints, a central database makes more sense. Of course, pooling library orders and submitting them centrally makes more sense, too, and look what the Black Queen did with that. The big drawback to a central system is that it depends absolutely on the quality of the whole Duchy network, especially the connections to the Duchy castle. Currently if a school server goes done, it has no impact on the other libraries. If the Duchy Castle's connections go down, well, everything generally runs a little smoother without the spam issuing from the castle regularly. With the ONE and ONLY library database sitting in the Castle's servers, when the Castle connections go down, all 105 libraries will also go down. Shouldn't this have been discussed by the committee, if they had been allowed to meet? Just to make you have even more confidence in our leaders, have you noticed that the Duchy Job Openings page has been down more often than not? The Monday communique had the wrong links for the BIG back to school conference. It took me multiple tries to get the Bored agenda because the agenda page was inaccessible. TiTS has lost multiple employees, a director, and a T. They are now only TS. Have you seen many TS jobs posted (assuming the jobs page is up)? Doesn't that mean that TS is extremely shorthanded, shortheaded, and shortlettered, (maybe even shortsheeted)?

Wait! I understand it! It's in the Black Queen's Top Secret Management Handbook. If 100 library databases have 100 computer problems in a year, then 1 library database will only have 1 computer problem in a year and obviously fixing that 1 problem can be outsourced to Circuit City. Maybe we can apply the same logic to Dotland. Dotland, with 6 employees, was ordering for 105 libraries and created around 500 requisitions. Therefore, each school ordering for themselves would only need to create about 3/4 of a requisition each. (If you want to work it out for youself, 6 employees times 105 libraries is 630. 500 reqs divided by 630 is .79 or about 3/4) Since it's not possible to create 3/4 of a requisition, libraries can wait and only order every other year or 2 orders every 4th year. 2 reqs every 4 years is not an onerous burden for school offices. No wonder the Black Queen wants to get rid of Dotland. (We'll set this segment to the song "New Math" by Tom Lehrer. )