Thank you! I think you may have just provided me with my graduate
research topic!
On 8/30/07, Bernhard Eversberg <ev_at_biblio.tu-bs.de> wrote:
> A) Analyze a not too small number of real-world reference questions
> that were not easily answered on the spot. What did it require to
> find a satisfactory answer? What means and tools have been used and
> how did they perform? What may be the reasons for good or bad
> performance? If the catalog is the primary tool that had to be used,
> what type of queries had to be done? Would keywords have been
> sufficient? Would FRBR have been helpful? ToC data? Full text?
> Topic maps?
>
> B) Ask patrons returning books if they were satisfied with them
> or why not. Try to find out if what they were after could
> probably have been found by different means and in other places, in
> the library or elsewhere, on paper or online.
>
> More and better questions can surely be found.
> I don't know what the outcome might look like, but I do know a fair
> number of people still borrow a decent number of books, and to find
> these they need the catalog. Results may indicate why and how it
> needs to be improved, also what labor-intensive features of it may be
> obsolete.
> Results may even interest the people now busying themselves with
> finishing RDA. Will a reality check finish it off? Do we really know
> enough already?
>
> B.Eversberg
>
--
Sharon M. Foster, B.S., J.D., 0.58 * (MLS)
F/OSS Evangelist
Cheshire Public Library
104 Main Street
Cheshire, CT 06410
http://www.cheshirelibrary.org
My library school portfolio: http://home.southernct.edu/~fosters4/
My final project for ILS655, Digital Libraries:
http://www.vsa-software.com/ils655
Any opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Received on Thu Aug 30 2007 - 09:23:51 EDT