At 09:54 PM 3/10/2009, Mary wrote:
>Throughout the history of the development of automated library
>systems, the back room activities were the driving factors in
>development. We started with circulation and added back room cataloging.
Oh please - like circulation isn't a public service? Or cataloging?
The totality of the library serves the public - acquisitions included
(are we acquiring things for staff-only use?). It's a very myopic
view that says that only the OPAC matters to the public. Why should
this be viewed as a divisive tech services vs. public services situation?
I would love to see a library system that gives more power to the
reference librarian so that the public can be better served. Right
now, most of the tools are so poor that cataloging data that has
already been input cannot be easily retrieved and used in the kinds
of sophisticated searches that pinpoint what users need. Too often
the reference librarians on the front lines are forced to throw some
keywords at a search box and they fare about as well as a civilian
would, even when they know in their heads how to do a better search -
they are frustrated by the limitations of the current systems (and
who has time to do a "create lists" kind of search with the patron at
the desk?). Thankfully, we have started to see more MARC data being
leveraged in next generation systems, and hopefully that will mean
that cataloging will make use of more of the appropriate fields
instead of ignoring them "because they don't show up in the OPAC anyway".
It's all connected and as Sharon wrote, it's about good interfaces
between the systems.
Mike
www.crj-online.org
www.jazzdiscography.com
Received on Tue Mar 10 2009 - 22:14:40 EDT