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I saw a comment earlier that "the vendors aren't giving us what we want." Who's fault is that? Why on earth are we waiting for the presidents of ILS vendors to tell us where we're going at the annual user's group meeting or ALA annual or mid-winter? These folks work for us, remember? We tell the vendors where we're going - they follow us, not the other 'way 'round. Ironically, this requires that we libraries and librarians need a clearer, crisper, measurable sense of where we're going; what I perceive as the historically relaxed method and pace of planning and change leaves us begging for crumbs year after year after year in city, county, state, school and higher ed budgets.
Hmm . . . I think--and this is just a rough sense, from a very green librarian--that there are a number of people in the library world who don't feel they can be that demanding of their vendors. I get the sense from some people that we simply have to rely on vendors, because we aren't capable of doing the things they do, because we lack the skills, or the time, or what have you.
NCSU). I find it at the Seattle Public Library. I find it at Bucknell University. Let's imitate these folks, not so much in their technology as in the process that led up to realizing "We need a tool that does this. Let's do a project." Information storage and retrieval theory, and user interface optimization only begin to be useful inside those projects.
That's exactly what I mean--I think we do need to do a project (and get a barn and put on a show!), but I get a sense from some that we can't, or that they can't, or that it's impractical to think such things, or that, since the OPAC is clearly such a huge advance over the card catalog, we should just be happy.
The next-generation catalog is a solution in search of a problem. The problem we're trying to solve is not entirely clear. If your library closed today would anyone notice? If the library had to charge for its services, would anyone pay? How much would they pay? What services do we need to stop providing? What services do we need to start providing? How do we make these services known? Building on past and present success, how to we define success today and achieve more of it?
I'm happy to say that if this library closed today, a lot of people would notice--we're in the thick of summer reading (including the brand spankin' new adult summer reading program, in which you could be the lucky winner of a digital audio player--but only if you're a Meeteetse, WY resident with a library card :-) ).
Laura Crossett
Branch Manager
Meeteetse Branch Library
PO Box 129 / 2107 Idaho
Meeteetse, WY 82433
307.868.2248
www.parkcountylibrary.org
AIM: theblackmollly
Y!M: lcrossett
Received on Thu Jun 15 2006 - 13:17:58 EDT