[WEB4LIB] Building Earth's Largest Library

[Roy Tennant]

I think this is one of the most important articles I've read in a long
time, and I said as much in the current issue of Current Cites:

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1999/cc99.10.4.html

By a lucky coincidence, I am the keynote speaker at the next OCLC User's
Council Meeting. I'll allow you three guesses about what one of my themes
will be.
Roy

On Tue, 4 May 1999, Sloan, Bernie wrote:

> 
> Forwarded from another list with Steve Coffman's permission.....
> 
> Steve Coffman got a lot of reaction to his article in the March issue
> of Searcher Magazine, but he says he has "not heard from many 
> people directly involved with the library automation 'community'."
> He's going to do a follow-up for the July/August issue, and is looking
> for reactions to the March article. See following note...
> 
> Bernie Sloan
> Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
> University of Illinois Office for Planning & Budgeting
> 338 Henry Administration Building
> 506 S. Wright Street
> Urbana, IL  61801
> Phone: (217) 333-4895  
> Fax: (217) 333-6355
> Email: bernies at uillinois.edu
> 
> > ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> > Howdy folks.
> > 
> > In the March issue of Searcher Magazine I wrote an article called Building
> > Earth's Largest Library where I tried to apply the Amazon.com business
> > model
> > to the library world.  The piece has generated so much reaction (over 150
> > letters to the editor and email postings so far) that the editor has asked
> > me to do a follow-up piece for the July / August issue to address the
> > various issues that have been raised.
> > 
> > My problem is that while I have a lot of comments and many of them are
> > quite
> > positive (like "when do we start?")....so far I have not heard from many
> > people directly involved with the library automation "community"  ...and
> > I'm
> > afraid I've said some rather uncomplimentary things about the state of our
> > current systems ....especially as compared with what people like Amazon
> > have
> > developed.  So I would be much obliged if those of you who are interested
> > would have a look at the piece which is available full-text on the Web at
> > http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar/searcher.htm   ...and then let me
> > know
> > what you think.  I will summarize all responses in the July / August issue
> > of Searcher and that article will also be available full-text on the Web
> > ...I'll send the address when it comes out.  And if you are really
> > interested in the idea, you should know that the Internet Librarian
> > Conference is planning a whole track on the concept at their meeting in
> > San
> > Diego this November.   I look forward to hearing from all of you ...and
> > don't pull any punches, OK.
> > 
> > 
> > Yours,
> > 
> > 
> > SC
> > 
> > Steve Coffman
> > Director, FYI
> > County of Los Angeles Public Library
> > 1-800-582-1093
> > 562-868-4065 fax
> > coffman at cerf.net
> > http://colapublib.org/fyi/city
>