If we care, we do it (was anatomy of a netscam)

[Tim Mallory]

Karen Schneider (message appended below) raises the question "who would 
do such a project?" which has only one possible answer.  It is the same 
answer that created millions of catalog cards, and cooperative cataloging 
ventures such as RLN, WLN, OCLC, and whatever others exist.  WE do it.  
   Things only get done by people who care.  Some care about money - and 
will do things that get them money.  That's how we get commercial 
ventures, and all their foibles.  Some care about {soapbox} the good of 
the people.  Not-for-profit organizations, such as governments, schools, 
and ALA were created this way.  Many forget that the creation of these 
was as a way for people to cooperate for common goals, unachievable by 
individuals.  Paving the roads, AACR2-R and implementing the Dewey decimal 
system.  {end soapbox}
   What is needed is the framework on which to hang our collective work.  
I can index a site.  Once indexed, I need a suitable place to put it.  I 
do it now, and post it on a bulletin board in my building.
   We need to define this "suitable place to put it".  There are enough 
of us out here that petty output by each of us would amount to massive 
input.  The question arises then about the habitual committee to set the 
standards.  We've got that already (it's us, and we're already here or 
you wouldn't be reading this), and the IETF task force 
consensus model for adoption of standards.  Discussion thread, anyone?   

----------------------------------------- _.. ...      __.. . _..  _____
Tim Mallory, Reference Librarian
Aberdeen Timberland Library     Voice:   360-533-2360   
121 E. Market St.                 FAX:   360-532-2953
Aberdeen, WA  98520-5292       e-mail:   tmallory at timberland.lib.wa.us
__%\__"round and round goes the wind" - ecclesiastes i:6 __%\__)))))>>>*   

On Wed, 10 Jul 1996, KAREN SCHNEIDER wrote:

> John Hogle summarized my thoughts on this issue.  I'd add that this
> points up once again the problems with relying on tools created by
> commercial services.  As long as we let "them" create these tools, the
> tools will reflect market forces and not the users' best interests.  While I
> use Yahoo daily, I'm aware that I'm being massaged, swayed, conditioned
> and manipulated--and I'm aware, as John points out, that most users are
> UNaware of this.  They see these indices as benevolent public services. 
> We address this in training, but in addition to caveats we try to point
> people to the few noncommercial indices, such as the Berkeley Public
> Library index to the Internet.  Even better would be a resource on the
> scale of Yahoo that was created by public-service librarians on behalf of
> The People. 
> 
> Who would do such a project?  Well,  OCLC has a project called Netfirst,
> which is currently free, but what bothers me is that it has been and later
> will be a fee-based resource.  That leaves our professional associations
> and the Library of Congress as key instigators of public, tax-funded
> indexing projects.  GILS and other projects are interesting, but they
> haven't taken off (though projects such as FedWorld are very useful
> within the framework of government resources). We haven't seen any
> other lead-the-fleet projects.  So what's the answer?
> 
> Karen G. Schneider/US EPA Region 2 Library/
> http://www.epa.gov/Region2/html/library/
> schneider.karen at epamail.epa.gov
> opinions mine alone
> 
>