Nina McHale said:
"I just question what we're so jealous/afraid of, and also who and what we consider competition, and why we spend thousands of dollars and lots of time hand-wringing to try to be something that we don't need to be?"
If we're not at least a little bit jealous/envious/worried/fearful/curious about our "competition" we'll become complacent and satisfied with the status quo. And that's not a good thing, IMO.
Bernie Sloan
--- On Fri, 2/13/09, McHale, Nina <Nina.McHale_at_UCDENVER.EDU> wrote:
> From: McHale, Nina <Nina.McHale_at_UCDENVER.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Personal perspectives on catalog use
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Date: Friday, February 13, 2009, 12:48 AM
> Are we trying to make catalogs into something that they
> don't really need to be? We constantly hear that Amazon
> is "the competition." Is it, really? We're not
> trying to sell books. Libraries are not just books, but
> space, computer and internet access, services, etc. Is it
> really such a bad thing that people admit that they use our
> catalogs to check on local availability? I had an Economics
> professor insist to me once that the default search in our
> catalog should be "Author," which certainly
> suggests a preference for known-item searching, as an
> earlier poster has observed also.
>
> Ten or so years ago, we were bent out of shape because
> users were leaving libraries in droves--supposedly evidenced
> by lowered gate counts--because of the internet. Like the
> internet generally, Amazon is just another tool out there to
> help people meet their information needs. Do we feel,
> professionally, that we have to be the only toolbox in town?
> Okay, sorry, that metaphor kinda broke down. Similarly, I
> hear my instruction colleagues drilling into freshman heads
> the same thing that I did back when I did instruction:
> "Start your research on the Library's web page, not
> the open internet!" Why? I certainly don't. Are we,
> professionally, really so jealous of what we perceive as the
> competition?
>
> All of that said, I'm certainly not suggesting that we
> shouldn't adapt and move forward to better serve our
> users, and I'm really excited about our own impending
> implementation of a NextGen catalog. I just question what
> we're so jealous/afraid of, and also who and what we
> consider competition, and why we spend thousands of dollars
> and lots of time hand-wringing to try to be something that
> we don't need to be?
>
> Just thinkin' out loud and ignoring three deadlines...
> :)
>
> Nina
>
> Nina McHale
> Assistant Professor, Web Librarian
> Auraria Library
> University of Colorado Denver
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 6:56 PM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Personal perspectives on catalog use
>
> > I'm not saying that libraries are
> superfluous...I'm a big library supporter. I guess
> I'm saying that library
> > catalogs have failed to evolve much over the years.
> Online catalogs were first developed back when libraries
> > were still pretty much the only game in town (or on
> campus) when it came to information access. And library
> > catalogs still seem to reflect that "only game in
> town" mentality, in an age where many alternatives
> exist.
>
> One reason this has happened is that the rest of the web is
> based on
> an essentially open model. Most of the content is available
> for
> indexing and linking, and no central institution controls
> the
> metadata. This openness has produced *waves* of innovation
> and
> improvement-the web today is vastly more interesting and
> better
> organized than it was a decade ago. This while library
> information
> systems are stuck about where they were when the web took
> off.
>
> It is therefore all the more concerning that, as the
> realization dawns
> on all that libraries have missed the boat, and people are
> bypassing
> them in favor of the web, the Guardians of Libraryland are
> calling for
> a decisive turn away from openness-from the very thing that
> made the
> web work.
>
> Sincerely,
> Tim
>
> *In effect, Google commands the metadata now, but that was
> only
> possible because there was no central control. Without
> that, we'd all
> be using WebCrawler or Veronica or etc. And if something
> better came
> along, they would no doubt lose their position.
Received on Fri Feb 13 2009 - 11:17:50 EST