Is the milk in the back? (was Re: [WEB4LIB] Alta Vista's infallible logic)

[Nick Arnett]

At 05:12 PM 4/20/99 -0700, Dan Kelley wrote:


>Jeez, why didn't anyone tell me this when I was in library school?


I have a serious question related to this, though it may sound a bit 
humorous.  Do libraries often "put the milk in the back of the 
store?"  Grocery stores put milk in the back because it is the item people 
are most likely to buy, thus they must pass and see other temptations.  Do 
libraries consciously put the most popular resources in the back, in hopes 
of exposing patrons to resources they might not have seen?  Or is the 
attitude more often that the patron can be counted upon to explore, so the 
most popular resources should be in the most convenient locations, for 
efficiency?

I expect that advertising-driven Web resources are already putting the milk 
in the back, but I haven't taken the time to verify this.

Nick