Lending, reserves, archives definitions (WEB4LIB digest 716)

[Scott Bauer]

On Fri, 11 Jul 1997, chris.zielinski at alcs.co.uk (Chris Zielinski) wrote:

>-What is "lending" in a digital environment? Does the concept mean
>anything online? Note that, if you are making a copy, you are not
>lending. Personally, I doubt that you can "lend" anything online - but
>I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise.

Chris,

It COULD be done -- I copy the resource onto a disk, erase it from my
system, and hand you the disk.  When you are finished with the resource,
you do the same, returning the disk to me. (And disk could be any storage
medium, of course.) 

Going to the trouble of doing it, and the consequences of what occurs if
the data becomes lost, or "merely" corrupted in some way, are a few
reasons why this approach does not occur much, if at all, in real life.

>-What about definitions for:
>
>---electronic reserves (relates to lending: again, I suspect that there
>can be no such thing as "electronic reserves", in the strict sense) 

Again, could be done as above... but for similar reasons, will not be.
There could be other limits imposed as well, I suppose (i.e., the resource
is limited to one telnet session at at a time, so that only one person at
a time could access it.

But of course, one reason why there are "reserves" right now is because
the resource is, in some way, scarce. When the resource is available
electronically, the scarcity has to be imposed artificially (and in this
broad sense, I would include licensing fees as an "artificial" means of
making the resource "scarce".)

Since reserve resources are meant to be used, they should be made as easy
to access as possible.  And in that sense, you are absolutely correct --
there should be no such thing as "electronic reserves."

>---electronic archives ---electronic backup (Is there any difference
>between the two?) 

Yes, there is a difference.  A "backup" copies the data, so that it can be
later restored.  An archive does the same thing, but the data has also
been treated in such a way that access to it is made easier.

In other words, as a librarian I view an "archive" as an organized
resource, rather than a bunch of ones and zeros on tape or disk or....

[And yes, you can indeed "backup" an "archive" :-]

>The questions may seem innocuous at first glance, but they have important
>ramifications.

Indeed.

>CHRIS ZIELINSKI, Secretary General, ALCS
>74 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1EF, United Kingdom
>Tel: (0044)-(0)171 255 2034 - Fax: (0044)-(0)171 323 0486

Scott Bauer     sbauer at ccnet.com
Contra Costa County Library
<DISCLAIMER>Comments above are mine, not the library's</DISCLAIMER>