[WEB4LIB] RE: OCLC and Browser versions

[Bob Duncan]

At 12:49 PM 2/11/99, David Merchant wrote:
>And I would like to see what their answer is to why this is so critical and
>important to do to enable access to their service that they can only offer
>a 4.0 browser version or a telnet lynx version.  With intelligent and
>professional coding, they can have a page that works in both 3.0 and 4.0
>browsers, that "degrades" nicely to non-Java enabled browsers and still
>offer access to their services.

I think the issue for OCLC is probably not about intelligently and
professionally coded pages that work in all browsers, but about providing
an enhanced and more useful interface to a system which doesn't work as
well as those of its competitors.  Despite OCLC's ".org" status, they still
need to compete against other vendors who provide access to the same
information.  OVID and SilverPlatter have (IMHO) far superior user
interfaces to much of the same data OCLC is peddling, enabled in part by
more sophisticated programming which requires increasingly sophisticated
browsers for access.  If OCLC wants to remain competitive, they have to
improve the usability of Web FirstSearch by adding features and
functionality -- this is what might be so critical to them.

I'm guessing that OCLC probably doesn't worry too much about losing
accounts over an upgrade to the next version of free software.  (Sadly,
libraries for which this is a hardship probably aren't the bread and butter
of any vendor and hence may not weild much influence, but OCLC *is* still
promising the telnet version.)  I think they're probably more concerned
about losing the accounts of institutions and consortia who have the choice
(i.e., the money) to migrate to another database vendor when they finally
get fed up with the miserable search capabilities and limited functionality
of the present FirstSearch Web.

Just a guess.

Bob Duncan

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
  Robert E. Duncan
  Systems Librarian
  David Bishop Skillman Library
  Lafayette College
  Easton, PA 18042
  610-330-5156
  duncanr at lafayette.edu
  http://www.library.lafayette.edu/