I am sorry if my last message offended anyone, especially the dig at
management and the political comment at the end. But I felt I needed to
get into those things to some extent to reach for a complete analysis of
the situation we're in. Maybe my "reach is longer than my grasp," as the
saying goes. Thomas Mann would probably not get into those points, and
maybe that's more appropriate. But the problem with just talking about
information access systems is that the issue then becomes simply: "Who's
right? Thomas Mann or Karen Calhoun?" I think we really do need to
consider what the economic background to these debates is. That is one
real strength of Calhoun's report of a couple of years ago. She really
does show an awareness of the economics of cataloging. For the most
part, her ideas are presented in terms of what is best for the user, but
there's always a strong economic undercurrent that is present in the
report. As I was reading it, when she asked, "do we really need to do
this anymore?" I always thought, "you mean, can we really afford to?"
--Ted Gemberling
Not an official statement of the UAB Lister Hill Library
Received on Sun May 13 2007 - 12:52:16 EDT