[WEB4LIB] Re: "books on the floor" metaphore

[Jane Neale]

Hi,

For years I have used the "kitchen junk drawer" as the metaphor I use to
describe the Internet and now web, how it is organized, and how useful the
stuff is that one can find there. My kitchen junk drawer has lots of good
useful stuff, mixed in with lots of useless stuff that I have no need for
but I have kept anyway, just in case! It is not well organized. Things in
that drawer get out of date, redundant and obsolete... When I rummage around
in there to look for something, I often find something entirely different
that is of interest..... When I pull out one item, it sometimes drags other
items with it, because they are intertwined..... and so on. I think it is a
great metaphor.

Jane

___________________________________________________________

Jane C. Neale
Information Technology Coordinator
Nylink
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Albany, NY 12246
e-mail: nealej at nylink.suny.edu <mailto:nealej at libmail.sysadm.suny.edu> 
T (800) 342-3353
F (518) 432-4346

Nylink was founded in 1973 as the SUNY/OCLC Network 
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-----Original Message-----
From:	Roy Tennant [SMTP:rtennant at library.berkeley.edu]
Sent:	Friday, December 10, 1999 1:07 PM
To:	Multiple recipients of list
Subject:	[WEB4LIB] Re: "books on the floor" metaphore

I'm surprised that no one has yet taken this metaphor to task. The
Internet is nothing like a library -- not even one with all the books on
the floor or one that has been vandalized. I think I hardly need to
explain what I mean to this crowd. So I'm surprised that some of us feel
like using this metaphor when it is insulting to all that libraries are.
How about "Doing research on the Web is like asking people randomly on the
street." Now *that's* more like it.
Roy

On Fri, 10 Dec 1999, Brian Smith wrote:

> >Here's one that appeared in someone's signature:
> >
> >
> >Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled
> >piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly."  -- Roger Ebert
> 
> I used that in my sig for a while.  It's from Ebert's "Critical Eye"
column
> in the Sept. 1998 issue of _Yahoo! Internet Life_, p. 66.
> 
> Brian Smith
> Assistant Head of Adult Services
> Villa Park (IL) Public Library
> http://www.villapark.lib.il.us/
> bsmith at linc.lib.il.us
> .. But writing only on my own behalf
> ===========
> "If you didn't want them to think, you shouldn't have 
> given them library cards." -- _Getting Straight_ (1970)
> 
>