[WEB4LIB] The "Commericialized" Library

[Dan Lester]

Monday, August 07, 2000, 12:32:24 PM, you wrote:

GM>      It is my professional belief that libraries and librarians
GM> have a professional responsibility to promote their collections,
GM> services and resources using any and all *effective* techniques.
GM> If banner ads' are effective, then they should be considered
GM> appropriate. [Here I am *not* addressing the issue of use of the banner
GM> 'ads' for unaffiliated corporate interests, although it has
GM> become quite common for corporate interests to display their
GM> 'banners ads' in variety of university venues, e.g. football stadia]]

I agree with you on it being our responsibility to promote our
libraries in all ways. Personally, I didn't find any of the academic
banners linked from your page to be offensive, though I'm not sure I'd
often wait for them to scroll or cycle through gifs if I knew what I
was doing.  Of course they're probably most useful to the lost and
confused.
 
GM>    BTW:  It is very important to note that the library banner 'ad'
GM> be garish.

Or did you mean that it NOT be garish?

GM> I invite MyWebColleagues to (re) visit BANaRAMa(sm). This weekend
GM> I added several new sites, notably those of The New York Public
GM> Library and the Chicago Public Library. I believe that these
GM> sites (as well as all the sites identified and listed to date)
GM> are not garish and that most visitors will find them effective
GM> [and therefore appropriate]

GM>    I am also interested in expanding the discussion on the use of
GM> links from library resource guides to commercial sites. I am in the
GM> process of preparing a resource guide to support an upper
GM> course and am experimenting with linking the citation in my Web
GM> guide to the Amazon.com / barnesandnoble.com record to provide
GM> the user with additional information about the listed title.

This raises a number of interesting questions.  Personally, I have no
objection with doing so, but I can imagine that you'll get arguments
on several fronts.

1. Why link to X and not Y and Z, particularly if Y and Z are local
outfits?
2. Are you, the library, or the university getting a cut as an
affiliate of the site you link to?  If not, why not?  If so, why?  Is
it legal and proper?
3. Should anyone who supports intellectual property support Amazon due
to their bogus patent claims on "one click" and so forth?  Should you
support such evil behavior?
4. Are the reviews submitted by unknown parties worth the electrons
that are drawing them on the screen?
5. Why not link to the entries in the library catalog, if you're not
doing so already?

NOTE:  The above are not MY arguments necessarily....and some of the
comments above are contradictory.  However, I've heard all of these in
recent weeks.

GM>     I  consider this a selection decision and one that enhances the
GM> user's knowledge about the content of the book [Here I am not endorsing
GM> that the individual purchase the book, but am providing
GM> additional descriptive and evaluative information through the service]
GM> [If the individual decides that the book is worth buying so much the
GM> better for him/her - the library has facilitated the use
GM> of the literature in an appropriate manner] - Every reader his book
GM> /  Every book its reader / S.R. Ranganathan (1931) [:-)]

No argument with Ranganathan.  (Is he even taught in library school
any more?  Newer grads don't seem to have heard of him and his works.)

cheers

dan

-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com