The OPAC as Portal - Not!

[George Porter]

As Jakob Nielsen correctly noted in the October 3, 1999 edition of his
Alertbox, Ten Good Deeds in Web Design, Amazon's usability has declined as
they have lost focus.  While I fully agree with the primary lesson drawn
from the near demise of the US railroad industry, "railroads aren't in the
business of running trains, they're in the transportation business", there
is extreme peril when an enterprise loses it focuses by over-reaching.  

OPACs are wonderful tools.  Fundamentally, the OPAC is the primary, not the
only, resource for identifying to your clientele the materials, regardless
of format, which the library deems to be of highest quality to meet the
information needs of their community.  It is not a substitute for an index,
when article level access to the journal literature is needed.

I can't begin to imagine the nightmare of privacy concerns that would ensue
from allowing Amazon to speculate as to what libraries extend borrowing
privileges to me.  I'd rather not go there, the buying circles are
frightening enough.

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
California Institute of Technology
Mail Code 1-43, Pasadena, CA  91125
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681