I could not agree more. I too have had the experience with computer support
that you describe and am in the situation of being both the Registrar and
Computer System Administrator for a museum that has only recently (about a
year ago) computerized.  My main problems arise where the individuals whom I
am trying to train to use the computer tools never learned the basic skills
they are exercising in their job (whether this is artifact registration,
public safety administration, graphic arts, etc.)

In article <[log in to unmask]>,
   [log in to unmask] wrote:
>Robert Baron wrote:
>"users of home-grown systems are often forced to depend for support
>entirely on their developer. We all know what pressures are brought
>to bear on in-house developers that
>often drive them to a de-facto inability to meet the demands of
>their
>clients.  And it is often not their own fault, but, rather, a
>frequent
>consequence of underfunding and understaffing. "
>
>Again, I could not agree more: but I guess the point I want to make
>is that I want my users to have the greatest possible control over
>the design of their system at the lowest possible price, and my
>solution to that is to empower them with knowledge (the old "teach
>'em to fish instead of giving them a fish" trick) so that they know
>enough about what is possible from a computer system to be able to
>demand what they want, not accept no for an answer, and even lend a
>hand. Many years ago a Bell Labs supervisor said to me that when
>they were looking for people to write readable computer
>documentation, it was a lot easier to teach an English major about
>computers than it was to teach computer programmers how to write; I
>think that applies to the extremely complex tasks of analysis and
>curation that only the sophisticated pattern-analysis capabilities
>of a human brain can perform, and it's just relatively easy to teach
>people who are already very good symbol-processors to do a little
>more to take control of their tools. And all of us, I would guess,
>are beginning to experience a decline in computer-illiteracy as
>younger people enter the profession, which, together with more
>versatile and user-friendly database systems, will eventually make
>the whole discussion moot.
>
>Pat Galloway
>MS Dept. of Archives and History