This may be totally off-base, but when I read this I could not help but
drawing an analogy to a popular MMOG I have played since before the
first expansion was introduced. Players have always complaining about
quests that did not work, NPCs (non-player characters) that had typos in
their scripts and used poor grammar, rings that could only be worn on
the waist (!), treasure that could not be used by the types of
characters who obviously SHOULD be using them, doors that opened the
wrong direction, etc... however; the company that produces the game has
chosen to focus on the next expansion (available at your local store or
by digital download every 6 months!)
When you look at the number one source of player complaints, there were
too many new expansions (which sounds like new product development on
one specific functional area) instead of fixing problems that already
exist. I am often asked "OMG! Do you still play ____?" NOT because I am
## years old but because these complaints have driven so many players to
other fields. The mind boggles at what libraries could do if they were
able to change their ILS as easily.
Just food for thought. I will go back to lurking now.
Hank Young
Cataloger
University of Florida
________________________________
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Stephens Owen
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 2:03 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [NGC4LIB] Death by enhancement: was WorldCat Local
Interestingly the North American Aleph user group has recently moved
away from working with the supplier (Ex Libris) on individual
enhancement requests, and instead has an agreement to focus development
on one specific functional area at a time. However, even early into to
trying this not all libraries are happy they have lost the opportunity
to vote for smaller enhancements.
Having been involved in a process of 'incremental' enhancements I'm
convinced that this type of 'improvement' does nothing for the overall
development of the product, detracts from strategic product development,
and leads to much wasted time and resource for both users and suppliers.
Although I agree that libraries continue to have a need for
'acquisition' and handling multi-part items we end up getting very small
changes to the way systems handle these issues, when we should really be
asking questions about whether completely accurate prediction of when
the next issue of x journal is going to arrive is more or less important
than redesigning the subscription functionality to deal with electronic
resources more effectively.
Owen
Received on Thu Apr 26 2007 - 12:41:44 EDT