NOTAmazon OR Google as a "corporate" role model: iTunes

[Eric Hellman]

I think that libraries should consider returning to their historic 
roots that have nothing to do with "search". Forget search- a billion 
dollars says that Google and Amazon will do search way better than 
any real library on the planet, and libraries can now leverage these 
searching capabilities in very real ways.

What libraries CAN do with their "rich stores" of data is to 
facilitate browsing- which is what libraries have always done well. 
Please take a look at today's very best digital library software 
package - iTunes. It's modestly priced. It manages collections using 
xml and leverages large stores of remote metadata. There's a small 
search box that you might not even notice because the collection is 
so accessible via browsing. That's worth emulating.
-- 

Eric Hellman, President                            Openly Informatics, Inc.
eric at openly.com                                    2 Broad St., 2nd Floor
tel 1-973-509-7800 fax 1-734-468-6216              Bloomfield, NJ 07003
http://www.openly.com/1cate/      1 Click Access To Everything