The Race to the Top

Comparing and contrasting is a normal way to evaluate anything. “I would rather have this than that” or “this looks better than that.” And as we all know, the grass is always greener when we look at something from a remote perspective.

As I've said throughout this password implementation project, Marmot staff are trying to maintain a balance between security, convenience, and system limitations.  A configuration that might be most secure might not be the most convenient for library users, or even possible given the limitations of Sierra. Or a limitation in Sierra can prevent a configuration that would make all of this more convenient. Finding that spot between these three factors has been at the forefront of our minds as we plan for the implementation of passwords.

In all of our considerations for striking this balance, we have never once looked for ways to do the bare minimum, because that is not the Marmot way.  As one of my favorite bloggers says, the list of reasons to justify mediocre work can be endless, but “there is only one way to justify work that is better than it needs to be: because you cared enough.” When we look at what other libraries or consortia are doing - for passwords or any other project - we don't ask ourselves "how can we do that or less."  We ask ourselves "how we can do that and more" or "how can we do that, but better."  Particularly when it comes to cybersecurity, there are always places we can look that we could use to justify doing less.  But we all know that cybersecurity threats are not going to suddenly decrease, but only continue to escalate.  When it comes to our password implementation project, I prefer our comparisons to other libraries or consortia to be one of pride in finding a way to do something more meaningful than the bare minimum while still maintaining a clear focus on our collective responsibility to both preserve patron ease-of-access AND privacy.  

To quote Seth Godin once more:

This is the Marmot way.