On 6/15/06, Houghton,Andrew <houghtoa_at_oclc.org> wrote:
>
>
> As I indicated above I'm reluctant to place the entire issue
> on the shoulders of "the vendor" especially when the interface
> to the ILS is customizable by the library. It's all about
> marketing, so maybe those library directors should be hiring
> geeks who develop shopping sites, now that's an idea...
Andy, I fear you're showing a bit too much of your "vendor hat" here
(although, admittedly, not a vendor that makes an ILS).
I am unaware of any mainstream ILS that allows very much customization by
the library. That's why almost all OPACs look roughly the same. It's also
very hard to get at the data inside our catalogs and forget about trying to
do patron services outside the native interfaces. Even the ILSes that give
RDBMS access to the data don't allow write permission.
This paragraph is unfortunate, because otherwise I wholeheartedly agree with
every other thing you write about.
-Ross.
Received on Thu Jun 15 2006 - 09:36:46 EDT