Friday, June 16, 2006, 9:31:12 AM, you wrote:
MJP> <me>I'm pretty green myself, and I feel the same way. I think it's
MJP> actually sort of an economic thing. The market for ILS's is
MJP> comparatively very small. The inertia you need to overcome to seriously
MJP> undertake changing ILS's seems overwhelming in my short experience.
OK, y'all, another blast from the past. In the fall of 68, when I was
at Bowling Green State U as Systems Librarian, I spent a week with
many of the big guns of the day in Poughkeepsie on IBM's dime. (Would
have been a quarter if they'd bought alcohol, but of course didn't)
First class accommodatins, food, people, etc. Anyway, IBM's "Museums
and Libraries Division" was trying this as a last gasp to see if they
could generate enough ideas and business to convince THEIR top
management that the division should survive. This was in the days of
IBM357 circulation systems, System 7 computers, etc. Well, we tried
mightily, I believe, as did the top folks in the division. However,
in about six months IBM had eliminated the division and essentially
removed themselves from active development of any sort in the library
systems market (no OPACs yet). Why did they do this? With such a
teeny percentage of their business in this area, and little chance of
serious income from a small number of clients, it just wasn't making
business sense.
We see the same thing today as the number of vendors for library
systems (I personally continue to avoid the term OPAC whenever
possible because it is total BS and means nothing to users, or,
really, to us) because the market is small and mature. There are
almost no possible sales without cannibalizing other vendors. It is
something like the mature markets for TVs, stoves, cars, etc.
Everybody has one and the vendors of those products hope they can
come up with some special feature that will get you to buy theirs
instead of another one when you need replacement or updating. Just
think of all the special "loyalty discounts" that car dealers are
giving for that very purpose.
So...the above quoted text is right....except that the word inertia is
used when momentum is intended, I'm sure.
dan
--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler dan_at_RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho 83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com The Road Goes On Forever....
Received on Mon Jun 19 2006 - 11:12:49 EDT