Eric, as a long-time admirer of your humble opinion, I couldn't agree
more with everything you put in your post. But, as always, I feel
compelled to muddy the waters again.
Here in Arlington (VA), the County's vision says that we are a
world-class urban community where every individual is valued...how do
you wrap your arms around the goals in that kind of a statement.
Further compounding the issue for us...when your clients include Supreme
Court justices and new immigrants (40% of the county population was born
outside the United States and speak a language other than English at
home) you are provided with a real challenge.
I agree that it is a worthy pursuit to match dollars to goals (one of
the dictums of my beloved "Planning for Results" process from PLA)but it
seems that there is a political and professional distaste for excluding
anything or anyone from our ambitions. Maybe it is our plenary
nature...maybe we're just too lazy to do it.
As far as the catalog fits in...Given this extremely broad (and
broadening) picture of who the users are (and what languages they
speak), is it a "catalog" we are looking for, or a search engine that
does what the catalog has traditionally done, plus the ability to do a
whole lot more?
Steven L. Carr
Bibliographic Services Manager
ARLINGTON COUNTY LIBRARY
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA 22201
703-228-5972
scarr2_at_arlingtonva.us
Received on Fri Jun 09 2006 - 07:54:58 EDT