Now don't you think a statement like "we are a world-class urban
community where every individual is valued" is really more about saying
all are welcome? It is a non discriminatory statement. Yes, this means
that the service community goes from one year olds to post docs and
everything between, but I do not believe most patrons believe the online
catalog should be designed for their personal needs. They just want an
easy to use interface; a one box solution.
What we really need is to expand searches from only having meta-data.
Why can't we have systems that index the whole book so that when someone
types in "it was the best of times it was the worst of times" patrons
get a listing of A Tale of Two Cities instead of zero results. Books
exist as electronic files at the publisher level so why shouldn't
libraries have access (not ownership) to this level of data so that
patrons can find what they need with quote searches? I'm excited to
report that when I just did this at my local library's online catalog
the book popped up because this quote was in the 520 field. So kudos
for metadata, but you know what I'm getting at. :)
Jon Goodell
Technology Services & Reference Librarian
Ottenheimer Library - Pulaski Technical College
North Little Rock, AR
501-812-2718
jgoodell_at_pulaskitech.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Eric Lease Morgan
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 10:53 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: Content [context]
On Jun 9, 2006, at 7:49 AM, Steven Carr wrote:
> 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....
>
> 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....
At first glance, I don't know exactly how to get one's arms around such
a large vision statement except through lots of discussions with
everybody involved. There are no perfect answers, it certainly isn't
easy, and the answers change over time. At the same time, the amount of
funding a library's hosting institution provides is a barometer
measuring how well they expect you to be able to fulfill the mission.
--
Eric Lease Morgan
Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department University
Libraries of Notre Dame
I'm hiring a Senior Programmer Analyst.
See http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/programmer/.
Received on Fri Jun 09 2006 - 12:25:29 EDT