Jim Weinheimer said:
"By far, the main tool that a library has is its library catalog, which is currently based on old thinking and just not very relevant to many people's needs today. It was built and designed in another time, for another world. Realize I am talking about the *catalog itself*--how it works and what it assumes--NOT the individual catalog records, which are incredibly under-utilized. As a result, it is unfortunately very difficult to demonstrate how the library is changing."
I agree. I said pretty much the same thing on this list about two-and-a-half years ago:
"I guess I'm saying that library catalogs have failed to evolve much over the years. Online catalogs were first developed back when libraries were still pretty much the only game in town (or on campus) when it came to information access. And library catalogs still seem to reflect that 'only game in town' mentality, in an age where many alternatives exist."
Bernie Sloan
Received on Sat Jul 30 2011 - 12:49:32 EDT