"One one side, we need catalogs w/WebTrends built in, so we can see what
people are doing, or not."
—————
As I understand it, WebTrends will only take you through transaction log
analysis (though pretty good transaction analysis): who hit you and where.
Catalogs need search analytics to provide information about the kind of
searches people are conducting, what searches work, etc.: top hits, lowest
hits, failed hits, how many searches are one, two, or three-term, whether
people are scoping you with subject/title searches, quoted searches, etc.
Plus it wouldn't hurt to have more expertise in general in LibraryLand about
understanding search.
Most decent search engines provide *some* analytical reporting capability.
It is possible to roll your own, but it underscores the limitations of
last-gen catalogs that these capabilities aren't built in. The last-gen
catalog is an inventory tool, not a discovery service.
————
On another side, we need to relentlessly advertise libraries and library
services. Not in the sense of an afterthought, but in the sense that the
survival of libraries as an institution depend on our ability to popularize
them, and adapt to changing needs. MJA
———-
Absolutely (I wanted to use the profane version of that word popularized on
Sex and the City... but this is a decent list...)!
We have to follow through, however. We can't just say "promote your local
library" and then provide services that are hard to use, limited, narrowly
available, or irrelevant. We could set up a booth at some big technology
conference and teach people to "worldcat" their searches, but we'd need to
be sure that when they did this they were caught at the other end.
Karen G. Schneider
kgs_at_bluehighways.com
Received on Fri Jun 30 2006 - 12:07:52 EDT