Re: What has LIS learned?

From: Dan Lester <dan_at_nyob>
Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 14:34:45 -0000
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
----- Original Message -----

> And yes, that's all there is to it. But we're not doing it. Very annoying.

"Annoying" qualifies as the understatement of the week in my book.

>
> >  Karen's point is starting with the user and
> > working backwards is the only logical way to build ultimately
> > satisfying systems.
>
> ... including, killing some of our babies in the process.

And that's what we're afraid of.  Whether we call it "killing babies" or "taking a morning after pill" or anything else, we have to remember that WE WILL FAIL SOME TIMES.  When people were moving westward a couple centuries ago there were lots of dead bodies along the way.  Didn't matter.  They came anyway and faced the fears and the risks involved.


I'm sure
> that even if we've spent many years building systems that we think
> work and they prove to be sub-par, we stick with it because of all the
> intellectual and actual work that has gone in to it, and perhaps we
> fear we're losing something by abandoning it. MARC is a good example
> of such.

Yes, another classic example of throwing good money after bad.  I do wish I could find the black hole that all that money went down, though.  If I found that money I could retire tomorrow.

dan
Received on Thu May 03 2007 - 08:36:52 EDT