I found the similarities the most interesting. Although their perspective was academic, the shift to heavy electronic research in law practice blurs the line further between information systems and information access providers. Since many law firms have no librarian, the comment in the podcast (paraphrased) about placing library content decisions in the purchasing department, if no-one is adding value to the content, is actually probably a fair statement of what's actually happening in most law firms.

Shauna's hit the nail on the head – it's about the relationship. Not just whether the two departments get along, but whether they need to. The 2008 Law Firm Inc law librarian survey indicated 18% of firm library directors report to the CIO or IT director. I expect that placing these two groups under the same person probably makes relationship building easier.

Being in a bottom-line oriented environment probably helps as well, to orient all groups towards similar goals. I expect that when the organization allows the library to avoid working with the IT department, the library will, even to the point of creating a parallel IT group in the library. Not a good way to create a good bond, or be efficient. Talk about similarities: what about non-library units (marketing?) making their own purchases, content decisions separate from the library? A more integrated purpose can clarify ways to work together.

Having been on both sides of these relationships, one thing that occurred to me was the problem of narrow perspective. Librarians, like most non-IT staff, are not as well versed in technology as the IT staff. Even when they are up on the latest tech and can talk as peers with the IT department, we don't necessarily look at it from the same perspective of how it fits into the business.

This cuts both ways: the IT department is not going to learn as much about libraries and our services/resources as we want. The demands on IT are broader than those on libraries; I bet law firms without librarians still have IT staff. We can build that mutual respect by understanding the limitations of IT, and being able to explain not just how a technology provides a service but also how it impacts the business and the IT department. It may require us to dig much deeper into a technology than we might normally go. It may also take us out of our comfort zone – IT "isn't my job" – but make us more educated consumers of IT services.

As you have implied, Shaunna, mutual respect is key.

I expect that the "I am too busy to explain this to those folks" or an "I can do it myself" attitude could be the root of many conflicts.

I am very happy to report that an excellent team relationship can be built between a busy library and a busy IT department in an organization.

Like marriage, it just takes constant work, and flowers and candy never hurt.