That reminds me of the Famous Quote of the 1980s: "No one will ever
need more than 640K of RAM!"
Sharon M. Foster, 91.7% Librarian
Speaker-to-Computers
http://www.vsa-software.com/mlsportfolio/
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Marc Truitt <marc.truitt_at_ualberta.ca> wrote:
> 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
>
> --
> *************************************************************************
> 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)
> *************************************************************************
>
>
Received on Fri Mar 06 2009 - 19:07:06 EST