Primary User

I hate to be one to muddy a discussion, but we have found here in a
medium sized public library that even if we say that the public is our
primary user, we need to start differentiating between in-house and
remote users since there seems to be some inconsistencies in the way
they use the catalogs.
 
I say catalogs since we have a classic OPAC as well as Aquabrowser - it
seems that 75% of remote users use Aquabrowser and 75% of in-house users
choose the classic catalog.  
 
This supports my theory of "Random Expectations of Library Users" which
says that people's expectations of a library are based on their (unique)
experiences using libraries during the course of their lives...where
they're from, who had the most positive library interactions with them,
etc.  It seems impossible to predict what people want to know or expect
to find, which shifts us radically away from the model of library
science when I got my MLS (which said there was a basic body of
knowledge that could be described, sorted and that, based on traditional
usage patterns, we could predict what people would want).  Given the
explosion of publishing, that model has pretty much gone out the window,
yet I think professionally we still cling to it.  In an age when we can
have something ordered and shipped to us within hours, we don't seem too
willing to just let the customer tell us what they want and then just
get it for them.
 
In the same vein, given that people rarely ask for what they really want
(remember the old reference interview training?), and given that we
historically have only provided very specfic types of access to
information, can we really predict how people look for information based
on their traditional card catalog/OPAC usage patterns?
 
 
Steven L. Carr
Bibliographic Services Manager
ARLINGTON COUNTY LIBRARY
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA   22201
 
703-228-5972
scarr2_at_arlingtonva.us