Re: who is the primary user?

Robert L. Kusmer, Ph.D., M.L.S. wrote:



"Why don't we first realistically admit up front that an undeniable need
exists for the catalog because there will always be users looking for
physical objects in physical libraries?



After we admit that the catalog fulfills a critical need that's not going to
go away, then we can get down to the business of examining and improving the
catalog.  But let's not pretend that there are no users of the catalog.
There are millions of daily users in venues ranging from school libraries,
to public libraries, to academic and research libraries."





I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Our library catalog is used
daily by our patrons - and without it people wouldn't be able to find
anything. They use it to find books, to access our electronic resources, to
check their records, etc. Statistics even show that students are searching
for items more than ever. Yet, they also show that they are using subject
searches most often - and having difficulty finding information that way.
My comment about library staff being the primary audience was worded badly.
I meant that in its current iteration it is most intelligible to library
staff - and in that way I think they are the audience that understands it
and uses it to its fullest capacity. I guess I see the catalog as having
been designed for use by library staff - and that seems to be one it biggest
problems because we are not the primary audience.



-Jennifer Macaulay
Head of Library Systems
MacPhaidin Library
Stonehill College
Easton, MA  02357





  _____

From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Kusmer
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 9:09 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: who is the primary user?



At 09:38 AM 6/7/2006, you wrote:

"... I tend to equate our library catalog with the concept of a shelflist.
It is a great tool for finding print resources within our library (which is
not the primary activity of users). Library staff could not get along
without it. Library staff are really the primary audience for the catalog as
it exists today..."




-Jennifer Macaulay
Head of Library Systems
MacPhaidin Library
Stonehill College
Easton, MA  02357



One of the first steps that needs to be done here is to describe accurately
what the catalog is.  I disagree that the library staff is the primary
audience for the catalog.  Certainly, it is a critical mechanism for
acquisitions, organizational, inventory and circulation control.  But that
is only the management function of the catalog.  The other raison d'etre of
the catalog, and by no means an incidental one, is as a finding aid for the
public user of the library.  Yes indeed, many many information searches
today bypass the catalog in favor of the internet as a means of finding
information.  That by no means detracts from the critical need for location
of print resources in physical libraries.  The user cannot locate print
materials without the catalog and the organizational function that
cataloging provides.  Browsing in the stacks is only possible because of the
organizational principle (classification) which the catalog provides.  And
even if the mistake were to be made of turning the library into a warehouse
of books arranged by sequential acquisitions numbers, it would still take
the catalog to allow the user to determine if a given library owns a given
title.

Why don't we first realistically admit up front that an undeniable need
exists for the catalog because there will always be users looking for
physical objects in physical libraries?  The world will not be a better
place if computer screen becomes the sole vehicle for information.  It will
be a much sorrier place.

After we admit that the catalog fulfills a critical need that's not going to
go away, then we can get down to the business of examining and improving the
catalog.  But let's not pretend that there are no users of the catalog.
There are millions of daily users in venues ranging from school libraries,
to public libraries, to academic and research libraries.

Robert L. Kusmer, Ph.D., M.L.S.
Associate Librarian
Liaison for German language & literature
Cataloger, German/Humanities/Theology
Fellow, Nanovic Institute for European Studies
123B Theodore M. Hesburgh Library
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556-5629
U.S.A.
Phone: 574 631 8649
Fax:   574 631 6772
Email: rkusmer_at_nd.edu