David M Guion DMGUION wrote:
>
> And one complaint that I have heard almost universally is how badly OPACs
> actually work--both in terms of searching, display, and the sheer amount
> of information in the MARC records that is apparently not used for
> anything. If it's designed by librarians for librarians, how come there
> seem to be so few librarians who are happy with it? It seems to be
> designed by computer programmers who think they know librarians' needs
> better than librarians do and turn a deaf ear to all the protesting. A
> system that worked better for librarians would work better for the general
> public, but it would take a lot of work to get it better for librarians
> and more still to make any improvements specifically for the general
> public.
>
I think David has nailed this one well. A few years ago, I was in a
focus group attended by librarians from about 15 major ARL customers and
the head of product development at the company whose the ILS we all
used. One of our number mentioned that the system made very poor use of
MARC fixed-length coded data elements for narrowing search results. The
lead company representative then launched into a 10 minute diatribe, at
the end of which she said "I can't imagine that *anyone* would want to
limit by *that* [specific element]. How many in this room believe their
institutions would find this functionality useful?"
Thirteen hands went up.
cheers,
- mt
--
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Marc Truitt
Associate Director,
Bibliographic and Information Voice : 780-492-4770
Technology Services e-mail : marc.truitt_at_ualberta.ca
University of Alberta Libraries fax : 780-492-9243
Cameron Library cell : 780-217-0356
Edmonton, AB T6G 2J8
"When you've seen beyond yourself
Then you may find peace of mind is waiting there.
And the time will come when you see
We're all one and life flows on within you and without you."
-- G. Harrison (1967)
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Received on Fri Mar 06 2009 - 17:25:45 EST