co-operation

Its totally stupid and funny at the same time. Last week I and three other people have been hunting an instrument through the whole Tromsø, finding two old ones which are apparently not usable any more. Today I was searching for something else at the botany department -in the other end of this very same floor-, and there is this instrument standing on table. Ok, its old too and might not be useful, but still, that it is possible we didn't find it before! What does that tell about the co-operation between the departments of our institute? Any kind of overview anyone what kind of equipment is laying around? No, not really. If we are lucky, people know what they have bought for their projects one day, and in the best case where it is and who knows how to use it. But any common list over this? And these are people who actually work with producing information... Although nobody ever said researchers are practical, but still. Really.