Limiting public web access (too many choices!)

[Steve Cramer]

>>> Elizabeth Felt <felt at mail.wsu.edu> February 10,
1997  3:21 pm >>>
"<snip>..................the one thing I stress above all else is
that when they walk up to one of our computers, they
need to think about why they want to use the computer,
and then decide which system is open on the computer."
<snip>
"I think many library users find it confusing that a computer
will do more than one thing."
----------------------------------------------
Indeed! And some library computers that do only *one*
thing (like a dedicated CD-ROM full-text service) offer a
number of databases -- some patrons never think about
which database they need, they go with the first one in the
list.

Elizabeth makes an excellent point. The Web (and other
computer-based services) may be easy to use, but you still
have to *think*. Critical thinking skills are as important as
computer skills in modern libraries.

Steve Cramer
Library, Davenport College of Business
Holland, Michigan USA
scramer at davenport.edu