CD ROM to WWW migration

[Karen G. Schneider]

Can't speak for everyone else's experience, but our downtime was MUCH
higher with CDs, and the computer support staff felt very burdened.  Plus,
the CDs weren't reachable in all parts of our region--whereas
net-accessible databases are.  It was very satisfying to go to Puerto Rico
and train staff in the same tools we were using in New York City (then
again, who can complain about a training trip to Puerto Rico?).

The ease-of-use issue is something else to consider... while I wish we were
accessing databases through a common interface (a voice crying "Z39.50" in
the wilderness?), they are close enough  in look & feel that we can teach
folks common principles.  The CDs were all different, and all very funky.
We knowledge workers may have liked them for their precision, but most
people coming in to the library had to absorb a high learning curve in
order to retrieve any amount of information.  

In the old days, if it broke, we had to beg the folks "upstairs," whose
priorities included automation support for 1200 other people.  Don't forget
the joy of new CDs, some every week for some products, and every once in a
while some five-disk set would remaster the disks from beginning to end,
creating yet more work for our computer folks.  (Plus all that plastic to
recycle...)  Now the burden of maintenance is back where it should be--with
the company providing the product.  We have to cope with slowness caused by
various 'net-related traffic jams and bottlenecks, but overall our
databases have been far more available than they were in the olden days
(that would be 1996).

This issue is not to be confused with the problems of bad interface design,
poor content, or the failure of the company to maintain enough servers to
support users.  These problems are not specifically related to "web vs. CD"
but are quality-control issues that need to be documented for consideration
in next year's purchase cycle.

______________________________________________
Karen G. Schneider |  kgs at bluehighways.com
Director, US EPA Region 2 Library  |  Contractor, GCI
Councilor-at-Large, American Library Association
The Internet Filter Assessment Project:   
 http://www.bluehighways.com/tifap/
Author, Forthcoming: A Practical Guide to Internet Filters
(Neal Schuman, 1997 ISBN 1-55570-322-4)
Information is hard work  -------------------------------------------