Bill Drew said:
"I agree with Karen. It MUST all start with the user."
As someone who observes here often, allow me a philosophical rant of
sorts:
Here's the problem with this as I see it: What if what the majority of
our users want is simply "more, easy, fast, and fun". Are there any
long-term consequences for these kinds of attitudes? What about social
responsibility on our part? And what about the minority that has the
education, means, and desire to still really suck it up and perhaps do
some serious research - to find what we know aren't always easy answers
(simply Google-style "information quick")
Re: "what users want", Birger Hjorland points out what I think is a very
important truth that we may fear sounds too "elitist", and hence may not
often want to consider: "A given document may be relevant to a given
purpose, whether or not the user believes this to be so."
To take some of any possible "elitist sting" out of that, all of us find
things that we think are relevant but really aren't - that's why we rely
on experts. We don't want to tell our doctors what we want. We want
them to help us with what we need.
Regarding serious and difficult research that takes blood, sweat, and
tears:
Birger Hjorland also asks another challenging question, namely do we
believe that there can be real "interdisciplinarity" between this and
that subject / academic discipline?: "The main thought is that if a
piece of research is reflecting a reality, then this will be confirmed
by other researchers (and practitioners), and knowledge will tend to
grow in a cumulative way".
I believe that we can learn more about the reality which is the world /
cosmos that we live in, and hence it is worthwhile to do the hard work
of learning about life in all its facets, seeking truth, etc.
Nathan Rinne
Media Cataloging Technician
ISD 279 - Educational Service Center (ESC)
11200 93rd Ave. North
Maple Grove, MN. 55369
Work phone: 763-391-7183
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Drew, Bill
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 9:42 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] What library patrons really want. Was: RE:
[NGC4LIB] Death by enhancement: was WorldCat Local
I agree with Karen. It MUST all start with the user. All else is
simply maintaining the status quo. That is the major reason I am such a
strong advocate for the ideas and motivations behind Library 2.0.
Bill Drew
Morrisville State College Libraries
drewwe_at_morrisville.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 10:28 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] What library patrons really want. Was: RE:
[NGC4LIB] Death by enhancement: was WorldCat Local
> Hear, hear! I agree. Everybody has something to contribute. It is not
> all about cataloging. It is not all about programming. It is not all
> about information literacy. It is not all about services. It is not
> all about collections. It is not an either/or. Instead it is a both/
> and. We all have more in common than differences. Build on
> everybody's strengths.
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University Libraries of Notre Dame
My one caution with the arguments I've seen so far is that they work
forward
from ILS/catalog/MARC, rather than backward from the user. We seem to be
trying to justify our tools and legacy data rather than asking what
people
need.
Karen G. Schneider
kgs_at_bluehighways.com
Received on Fri Apr 27 2007 - 08:59:16 EDT