There's a module for that.

So much of what we present and talk about is how to use social software to connect with our patrons, our community, our peers outside our own institutions.

But social software, and open source software that allows for collaboration within the library has become an essential tool for breaking up the "silos" and spreading knowledge and communication to all. Social software is the most beneficial tool for staff planning, scheduling, and communication in mid-size to large libraries, and only recently has become affordable, and configurable by novices (and librarians!).

So many libraries have invested staff resources in developing their online presence in external social networking sites--they are "free", and it must be done. But public library administrators have been slow to hire knowledge workers to build the same level of knowledge infrastructure as is found facilitating communication and centralized documentation in the corporate world.

Now open source packages and modules can answer the same needs and sometimes do it better, such as using CiviCRM with Drupal to track Friends' donor tickle lists & contributions, and Drupal's online store software internally to order and track distribution of office supplies to branches and departments.

Managing the entire package, and scripting the whole so that it works together seamlessly and provides administrators with instant answers--this requires IT librarians, IT staff, and scripters to do, and library managers with an IT focus to shift human resources to accomplish this. What level of staffing is appropriate? How do you decide what to do first? Would love to see great samples of "how we made internal processes work better with open source collaborative tools"