Not quite. I was pretty clued up on card catalogs from high school and
college, and then I went on my junior year abroad to the Free University
of Berlin in 1969-70, and discovered that their card catalogs were
different enough from US ones to need instruction. I still quake inside
at the words "Schlagwort" and "Stichwort"!
Roger Fenton
Laura Crossett wrote:
> One thing I've heard mentioned elsewhere but not here (I think):
>
> Card catalogs (which I used in grade school and to some extent in high
> school, though not much after that) had one real advantage: when you'd
> learned to use one card catalog, you could use any card catalog
> without additional training. They all worked the same way.
>
> Laura
>
> Laura Crossett
> Branch Manager
> Meeteetse Branch Library
> PO Box 129 / 2107 Idaho
> Meeteetse, WY 82433
> 307.868.2248
> www.parkcountylibrary.org <http://www.parkcountylibrary.org>
> AIM: theblackmollly
> Y!M: lcrossett
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Jack Hall <mailto:jhall_at_UH.EDU>
> *To:* NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu <mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, June 14, 2006 9:14 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [NGC4LIB] "Teaching"
>
>
> Steven's question about teaching library users is an interesting
> one. Recently our library staff viewed a video featuring Rick
> Anderson, called "Always a River, Sometimes a Library." Rick was
> questioning many of the traditional ways we do things. I would say
> his point of view was from academic libraries, but the panel
> included also people from public libraries. One of his main
> points, as I see it, was that libraries should stop doing
> instruction. A couple of his main reasons: we can't hope to reach
> a significant percentage of the users; we need to concentrate on
> making the resources we offer more transparent, so that
> instruction is not needed. I agree with both points.
>
> Instruction appears to be a major part of my library's
> functioning, both in groups and one-on-one. During a discussion of
> the above-mentioned video, our head of instruction said, with
> pride, that we reached 9,000 students last year through
> instruction (some would probably be duplicates). That's a bit over
> 25 % of our FTE students, so one might or might not say that it is
> significant percentage. And we have users that are not students,
> too, of course.
>
> Some of our public service people have a lot of criticism of the
> catalog (we are Innopac); one says "it sucks." I'm sure we have a
> long way to go to improve it, but I personally find that the other
> databases we offer, the multifariousness of them, and the
> interfaces we provide, suck as much as the catalog. Pardon the
> made-up word (multifariousness). Examples of the latter: full text
> or not; full text available to all users or not; need to log in or
> not; remotely available or not; display of data; searching;
> printing and downloading functionalities, etc.
>
> Jack
>
>
>
> At 09:26 AM 6/14/2006, Steven Carr wrote:
>
>> 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?
>>
>> For academic libraries: Is this teaching function still part of
>> your mission as well? What are you teaching?
>>
>>
>
> Jack Hall
> 114L University of Houston Libraries
> Houston, TX 77204-2000
> telephone:(713) 743-9687
> e-mail: jhall_at_uh.edu
> fax: (713) 743-9748
>
--
Roger Fenton
Swyddog Prosiect
Adran Gwasanaethau Casgliadau
Is-adran Systemau
Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3BU
Cymru
http://www.llgc.org.uk/
Ffôn: +44 (0) 1970 632800 est. 368
e-bost: roger.fenton_at_llgc.org.uk
Dydy'r uchod ddim o reidrwydd yn cynrychioli polisi'r LlGC
Project Officer
Department of Collection Services
Systems Section
National Library of Wales
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3BU
Wales
http://www.llgc.org.uk/
Tel.: +44 (0) 1970 632800 ext. 368
Fax: +44 (0) 1970 632882
e-mail: roger.fenton_at_llgc.org.uk
The above does not necessarily represent NLW policy
Received on Thu Jun 15 2006 - 10:10:43 EDT