Laval Hunsucker wrote:
<snip>
What's the difference between quality and something somebody (e.g. a scholar, a
student) can do something (useful, creative, productive, imaginative, inspiring)
with? Or wants to do something with?
</snip>
This will be one topic the library community will have to determine. Still, library selectors make these types of decisions thousands of times every day, so that part is not absolutely new. It will change, but it's still unclear (at least in my own mind) how it will evolve.
<snip>
<snip> Another aspect of selection that I predict will probably arise will be
"appropriateness" e.g. the search for "Michelangelo frescos" should have filters
for texts appropriate for children, novices, adults, experts, and so on.</snip>
Heaven save us from anything like this. Please!
Good grief.
</snip>
This is exactly what library selectors figure out right now, when they have a budget and they must decide what types of materials they should purchase for the collection. For someone selecting for a children's collection they will select for that community; for those who select for an undergraduate institution, they will select differently; for a research institution, still differently; for a general public library, even differently. There is nothing at all strange about this and makes perfect sense. I don't want children being faced with materials aimed for researchers, or researchers looking at children's materials. Different communities want different information about, e.g. Homer's Iliad: the PhD candidate, the interested citizen, the child, the high school student.
Just throwing all of it into a general pot would be a disservice to our users since everybody would have to wade through all kinds of materials they would never want.
But again, do I mean that there needs to be completely separate catalogs and so on? Not necessarily. I personally believe it would be best for everyone to use and search the same database, but simple codes could be entered by selectors for each community. This way everyone could cooperate and efficiencies could be enhanced.
James L. Weinheimer j.weinheimer_at_aur.edu
Director of Library and Information Services
The American University of Rome
Rome, Italy
Received on Thu Jul 08 2010 - 16:06:14 EDT