[WEB4LIB] global catalog was Re: Coffman and ILL

[Bob Rasmussen]

On Thu, 26 Aug 1999, CD McLean wrote:

> ++++Aaah, it may be that just the few I am using will not accept email.  In
> just the last six months they have started accepting faxes.  I can see the
> wisdom of Coffman's request for a global system as some libraries are very
> behind on implementation.  What I don't see is where the money for such a
> global system will come from.

What money? How would accepting ILL requests be MORE expensive via email,
compared to snail mail, phone calls, or even faxes? My experience is that
email is cheaper than all of those, ESPECIALLY in "time costs". There might be
an issue of ensuring that you get all the information needed; not a big issue.

It's been interesting to watch this from the "outside" (as a software
designer, not a librarian of any sort). It sounds to me like there is some
validity to the argument that ILL is not done more because "it doesn't pay" --
in the largest sense of that phrase. While the commercial model is not
completely useful, neither should it be completely disregarded. You're still
providing a service to some constituency that pays the bills. So bear with me,
and think about the ILL that your library provides, from a free market point
of view:

1. Is it a goal of your funders to do ILL? Do they know you do it; how much
you do; how much it costs per transaction?

2. If you could make your ILL 10 times more cost-efficient, and your requests
rose by a factor of 10, what would happen? Would management and funders be
happy, or upset? How would that be reflected in changes in funding? What does
this say about the TRUE value of the service?

In economics, they say, "you can't push a string". Inevitably, the value of
something is determined by the market. This relationship is occluded to
various degrees in non-profit institutions. If a service costs money, you find
out over time how much it is worth - purchases of the service rise or fall
based on the comparison of cost and worth. If you give it away, on the other
hand, you never know what it is worth. 

Here's another way to focus on the big question: IF your library were to
receive "x" dollars for every ILL it processed, and it cost you only 80% of x
to process it, would you find ways to make ILL easier to use, so as to do
more volume?

And IF you were to receive "y" dollars for every obscure book you cataloged,
complete with reviews and a scan of the cover, would you find a way to make
Coffman's idea work?

What is "x"? What is "y"?

-- 
Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

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