On Jan 19, 2007, at 2:43 PM, Sloan, Bernie wrote:
> I was browsing through the LITA top tech trends blog entries and ran
> across the following from Eric:
>
> "Library catalogs are a hot topic. Even though I have been a bit
> more outspoken about catalogs than most people, I wonder whether
> or not this is something our patrons/users really care about.
> Hmmm..."
>
> So would it be a good thing or a bad thing if users cared or didn't
> care
> about us trying to improve our catalogs? :-)
Well, I suppose I should clarify.
For a great many of us here in Library Land, the catalog is our bread
and butter, and along with that it is something many of us have a
great deal of passion for. Lot's of debate. Lot's of time. Lot's of
expense. Lot's of energy. So much more time, expense, and energy than
most patrons ever know.
For most patrons I suspect they want to enter a few words into a
search box, expect the computer to read their mind, get back a list
of things that enable them to get their work done more quickly, and
go merrily on their way. I doubt they care about data formats, the
words are used to describe things, whether or not it uses Boolean
logic or relevancy ranking to sort items, etc. As long as it meets
their needs & expectations they probably don't care. A library
catalog is a small part of the patron's Information Universe. Alas.
--
Eric "Foot In Mouth" Morgan
Received on Fri Jan 19 2007 - 14:20:06 EST