Hear hear !!
Right on target.
At last somebody with some common sense and more than a
grain of percipiency ( and impatient with that same tiresome
old -- excuse the vernacular -- déformation professionnelle ).
And though it would sometimes, depressingly, seem so, Tim's
fortunately not the only one with a realistic take on this matter
and the forthrightness to ventilate it. And yes, even in our own
professional circles one also occasionally unexpectedly meets
with such a breath of fresh air :
I would recall, as perhaps some of you do, that no less a
colleague than the current ALA president ( ! ) once wrote, and
I quote : "every information seeker should be free of the
librarian's expectations ... and free from an intermediary's
judgments of the value of a bit of information to that
individual's purposes". Imagine that ! ( See Rettig's "Self-
determining information seekers" in _RQ_ for 1992, p.158-
163. )
I could hardly have put it better myself :-). It seems there may
still be hope for our walk of life.
So let's at last stop making ourselves look ridiculous, I'd say.
We've got enough other, important, things to do. Enough *real*
work, at least for the time being. [ As I'm sure also Tim would
agree without hesitation. ]
Laval Hunsucker
Specialist voor de Oudheid
(Antiquities librarian)
Universiteitsbibliotheek
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Nederland
E.U.
" -----Original Message-----
" From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
" [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
" Sent: maandag 23 februari 2009 11:03
" To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
" Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] opac live search
"
" > The problem is: while *we* know the problems of Google,
" studies have shown that the majority of users think they are
" good or excellent searchers. And why not? They almost never
" get a zero hit, while they do all the time in a library catalog.
"
" This is so patronizing. People aren't happy with Google over the
" library catalog because they're stupid.
"
" >On one list, I mentioned that the most heartbreaking thing I
" had seen in some time was on Google Trends, one of the big
" searches that week was "financial hope."
"
" You should try using Google to confirm things you hear. Google Trends
" indicates the search doesn't have enough volume to chart.
"
" > People need help when they search for information, and they
" need to rely on people who follow a code of
" > professional ethics. (Sounds like a librarian!) But
" unfortunately, people are all too often unaware of what
" > they are missing, or what they are really looking at.
"
" This is completely out of touch with both the world as it exists and
" with the inherent value of others' minds. Librarians can be very
" helpful. They are not the only or necessarily the best guide to what's
" interesting, useful or germane to someone's interests. They are not
" Plato's Guardians.
"
" Tim
"
Received on Fri Feb 27 2009 - 15:31:40 EST