Our library may be an anomaly in 2006 with its VT-100 OPAC terminals and
no Web access. (This is going to change by year's end or the first
quarter of 2007 when we implement a new ILS.) I find it puzzling to
figure out how to teach a non-graphical interface to people who have
grown up with amazoogle or other browser-based ILS front ends. We don't
do bibliographic instruction these days, although we did it in the past.
Once we switch over, I'm certain that we will be offering classes to
people to teach them how to use the ILS to locate items. We will
probably also include about 20 minutes on how to search our magazine,
newspaper, and business subscription databases, just to ensure that they
are aware that they exist and that they have remote access to them. I
do not expect that the time we would spend training our patrons would be
longer than a few months, with a session or two a week each
accommodating 10 patrons. People who are accustomed to using
neighboring agencies' catalogs (Los Angeles PL and County of Los Angeles
PL) will need no training.
In this period before the conversion, I have found it easier to spin the
monitor around so that the patron can see it, do the search myself, and
explain what I'm doing as I do so. It's our library's policy to take
the patron to the book/item and present it to him/her anyway, so I work
to get through the search component in order to concentrate on the
interaction with the patron. A new ILS won't change the way we work
with the patron, but it is likely that more patrons will be able to
locate materials on their own.
John Marquette
________________________________
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Steven Carr
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 7:26 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: [NGC4LIB] Thanks Karen
I think Karen has really captured the essence of what's been said so
far...Thank you!
I also have a question:
For public libraries: Do any of you have a mission/plan/interest in
"teaching" the catalog or searching to customers any more? Or do you do
this more in terms of finding what you want on the net?
<snip>
Received on Wed Jun 14 2006 - 16:37:32 EDT