Jonathan:
"Where I disagree with Mann entirely is what I see as his insistence
that what we have now works just great. I dont' think it does, I think
it's very broken."
I think Mann would admit that it is broken too (though he doesn't want
to minimize the value found therein, thereby allowing opponents the
opportunity to pounce) - but because it has not been given the attention
that it needs in order to be optimized.
Regards,
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 Jonathan Rochkind
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 9:02 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Hot (MARC) metadata!
There are some important points made in the Mann article.
We DO need to provide tools for expert researchers (even if that only
includes librarians) _as well as_ novice users un-interested in learning
sophisticated tools. I don't think _either one_ can come at the expense
of the other. (Which isn't exactly what Mann said, but it's what I take
from it).
There _are_ some sophisticated features of LCSH that we do not want to
lose. I take this from Mann too.
However, I think that the particular nature and structure of LCSH gets
in the way of providing easy to use interfaces right now---even the
sophisticated featuers could be and ought to be easier to use---with no
loss of sophistication. So what I take from Mann is that everyone
involved in designing and implementing systems has GOT to understand
LCSH inside and out---so they can figure out how to do things
differently without losing the power of LCSH. (It's this second part
that Mann maybe didn't want me to get).
Where I disagree with Mann entirely is what I see as his insistence that
what we have now works just great. I dont' think it does, I think it's
very broken. But I can respect Mann's worry that important power that
is currently present will be lost in our effort to make things work
'better'. We should guard against that.
But I suspect that a tiny minority of even reference librarians use LCSH
half as effectively as Mann does. There is a lesson in that. I think our
displays of LCSH and LCSH itself _can_ be improved to make the power of
LCSH more accessible---not to eliminate the power of LCSH.
Jonathan
Nicholas Bennyhoff wrote:
> Alex Johannesen wrote:
>
>
>> Yes, I've read it [the Mann article], and I think he's dead >wrong ;
he's a librarian
>> fighting for the librarian way...
>>
>
> Thank you for saying this. I read Mann as well, and was not happy. I
think he comes off as pretty techno-phobic, and as you say, seems more
interested in job preservation than in actually changing to meet the
needs of users in an era where library catalogs aren't doing the job.
>
> I'm not saying we should just jettison the catalog, or jump right into
full-scale "Googlization". However, the reluctance of many in the
library profession to seriously consider the results of current and
coming technology on the role of librarianship in the future is
short-sighted.
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> Nicholas T. Bennyhoff
> CMC Cataloger
> Lewis and Clark Library System
> 2765 Goshen Rd.
> Edwardsville, IL 62025
> (618)656-3216 ext.107
> nicholasbennyhoff_at_lcls.org
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Sent via the WebMail system at mailman.lcls.org
>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Tue Aug 07 2007 - 08:05:53 EDT