Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
> Weinheimer Jim wrote:
> >
> > I'd just like to add that the skill of the user must be taken into account
> > in this analysis. For a skilled user of a catalog, very often the catalog is
> > much, much better, ...
>
> I have to admit I'm skeptical. It would be good to see some evidence
> based on a sample of actual users showing this to be true.
>
> My anecdotal experience is that even our grad students and faculty
> prefer not to use the catalog. Of course, perhaps even our grad
> students and faculty don't count as "skilled users", you need to be a
> certain kind of librarian to count?
I guess I wasn't clear in my original post. We are the skilled users I had in mind, not grad students and faculty, who often don't know much more than an undergraduate. For example, I don't have to convince people on this list or on Autocat that searching a controlled library catalog is much easier and faster if you want to search for a name. While the one *seems* easier (I just type in anything I want! I don't have to search out some fool form of name that I would never think of!), but we know it's actually harder to sit there and try to think up the dozen or so forms that items are published under.
Once people see this, *that* is when they begin to understand that we are not putting obstacles in their way, we are actually clearing things out and making the path reliable. This is something that could never be understood in just a couple of minutes however--it's very complex. Attached to this today is the circumstance that everyone already thinks they are experts; when you mention some of these points, they just ignore you because they already know better.
But even if you can break through, we still have to demonstrate the advantages of our systems though, and we remain stuck with our lousy catalogs.
Jim Weinheimer
Received on Fri May 08 2009 - 11:02:09 EDT