I think it will be difficult to prove the effectiveness of a next-generation catalog from usage data. From the user's point of view, the dominant constraint under which they operate is available time, and their primary concern is locating a sufficient number of resources to satisfy their needs given this constraint. To this extent, what one may see is substitution of one source for another: interlibrary borrowing is viable within a certain time frame, and we've done a great deal to shorten that time frame, so it wouldn't be surprising to see users substituting higher-value materials available from another library for lower-value materials available locally. On the other hand, users who find relevant materials via search engines such as Google--and the amount of high-value and freely-available scholarly material that is exposed to such engines continues to expand rapidly--may find that the relevant materials they need to access via their local library constitutes a diminis!
hing proportion of the whole. Such users may use a next-generation catalog less not because it is less effective than the old catalog but because they have already satisfied a significant proportion of their needs by other means.
Ed Jones
National University (San Diego, Calif.)
Received on Thu Sep 24 2009 - 12:54:08 EDT