[WEB4LIB] Re: Ranganathan Thread

[Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org]

Re Roy's mention of the "Five New Laws"...

I can't take credit for those. There are very few pieces of _Future
Libraries: Dreams, Madness & Reality_ that can be attributed solely to one
of the authors; the Five New Laws is one of them. Those are entirely
Michael Gorman's creation. (Not that I disagree with them; I just don't
deserve credit for them.)

Re the Pareto Principle...

It's interesting that the Pareto Principle works in so many areas of life.
As regards libraries, however, I've always felt that libraries specifically
serve the 20%: that is, libraries offer resources to fill in the 20% of our
resource needs that aren't met by the 20% "big time" materials. (A brief
and probably confusing summary of a lengthy and probably contentious
discussion.)