Michael Fitzgerald said the following, in response to Ross's posting:
"I also question whether those used book store shoppers have really 'found what they want' - in truth, they want what they have found."
To be fair, one could say the same about a whole lot lot of library users:
"I also question whether those library users have really 'found what they want' - in truth, they want what they have found."
Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates
Bloomington, IN
--- On Wed, 2/11/09, Michael Fitzgerald <mike_at_JAZZDISCOGRAPHY.COM> wrote:
From: Michael Fitzgerald <mike_at_JAZZDISCOGRAPHY.COM>
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Does cataloging have value?
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 10:17 AM
At 09:41 AM 2/11/2009, Ross wrote:
> After all, in my home town we have a very large used book store. It
> has no publicly accessible inventory of their 'collection', and
yet it
> is always crowded with people that seem to have found what they want.
But in your bookstore example, the fact that (say) the travel books are all
together can only occur as a result of one kind of work that catalogers do.
It's not really a "knack" of the users. This classification and
collocation may be crude in a bookstore or highly refined in an academic
library. Even if a user chose never to interact with the OPAC but only to
meander through the stacks, browsing, his finding pretty much anything would be
impacted by the work of catalogers.
I also question whether those used book store shoppers have really "found
what they want" - in truth, they want what they have found. Quite
different. Shopping brings in so many other red herrings too - if a bookstore
sells no books, is it because it has stocked the "wrong" books? Is it
because the "wrong" customers decided to visit? Is it because of poor
organization? Is it because the prices are too high? Is it the unfriendly
employees? Is it location, location, location? Is it the economy, stupid? These
seem somewhat silly but the reasons for a bookstore's success are just as
capricious. And let us please not forget that libraries aren't bookstores.
The other things to be considered in this discussion are how efficiently the
user found materials, how the user became aware of those materials' place in
a larger system, and how the user was able to discover other materials that
might be relevant, including gaining a knowledge and appreciation of the entire
body of materials on the particular subject being researched (some of which may
not even be held by the library in question - LCC and LCSH help to do this).
Recommended reading: <http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/Papers/crl.pdf>
Mike
www.crj-online.org
www.jazzdiscography.com
Received on Wed Feb 11 2009 - 13:15:27 EST