On 6/14/06, Andrews, Mark J. <MarkAndrews_at_creighton.edu> wrote:
It seems to me the run-of-the-mill library catalog does an unsatisfactory
> job, at best, of doing what the library staff want it to do. When, for
> heaven's sake, was the last time any of us asked our customers what they
> want a catalog to do for them - and then find a way to give that to them?
I agree with you;
http://shelter.nu/blog/2006/06/what-is-library-project-success.html
I've tried to point to what "success" means, and between the lines
(well, a bit clearer than that) I'd say that as long as libraries
regard themselves as successful when compared to "comptetition" they
obviously suck, they only got ourselves to thank for making themselves
irrelevant to the rest of society.
I *dying* to make better systems - smarter, better, faster! - but I
can't do that on my own; it requires that the library as an
organisation (or better, as a field!) *wants* to build smart, better
and faster systems. Where are the business and management people in
this debate urging us on to do just that? Sadly, they're away in
meetings, buying Z39.50 systems...
Alex
--
"Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know."
- Frank Herbert
__ http://shelter.nu/ __________________________________________________
Received on Tue Jun 13 2006 - 19:52:56 EDT