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The article discusses the connection between a librarian and a digital communicator. Library skill is a strategic resource that can transfer to a broader field within organizations. Digital communicators use public service strategies to create outreach opportunities. The strategies command to extend the services, community and values of the library to the users. Background on the fundraising effort of the library team at the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California in Berkeley is presented.

The article compares how two undergraduate researchers used information technology in conducting projects at the University of California's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) Library in Berkeley. The first researcher worked on a study about sweatshop workers while the second one explored the use of music as organizing tool of labor unions. One of their similarities was that they failed to use structured language to find the information they needed. In contrast to the second researcher, the first one did not use the library's web guides.

The author reflects on the impact of a multiple-year initiative by the University of California-Berkeley's central campus computing department to radically improve its information technology (IT)-functional support. He mentions that the initiative came with the appointment of a campus chief information officer (CIO). He points out that the focus on IT user services set the agenda for taking library expertise beyond the library.

This article explains the importance of education in computer safety at the library of the University of California-Berkeley. Berkeley's local impact on the intellectual and cultural life of the Bay Area, in San Francisco, California, is far-reaching. This is particularly true when the underlying causes of the successive security breaches they have witnessed locally have to do with person-to-machine interfaces of a more mobile nature than usual. The Berkeley campus has instituted vastly tighter security rules, anticipating a highly publicized moment in June 2005 when minimum-security guidelines will be enforced for any computer that is connected to the campus network. Information technology professionals at Berkeley are doing their jobs and have protected the network itself to a reasonable degree. But the one set of factors that is the most difficult to guarantee is also the most familiar: individual user patterns. How we choose to use computers on a daily basis creates a set of security threats that can only be countered by education and outreach. More than ever, security has become an instructional concern. Education is key. Digital librarians, both as content managers and instructors, have a lot to offer.

Discusses the use of the Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory computer software to manage the UNIX C Shell digital library at the University of California in Berkeley. Role of administrative computing in the improvement of digital libraries; Features of the Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory; Factors to consider in the management of digital library servers and documents.