[WEB4LIB] Re: Do We Still Need Online Catalog Vendors?

[Debra Lords]

> 
> There is nothing wrong with attempting to design a library
> system from the ground up. Though it isn't necessarily easy,
> that shouldn't discourage anyone away from doing it.  I say
> this having taken my share of programming and database courses
> in my undergraduate years in computer science.
> 

Attempting to design on one's own time is one thing, but to use
the library time?  Bugging the folks who are busy doing their own
work.  I'm sorry, but I simply can't agree -- even for small
systems that involve an acquisition component.  Anyone who's
library director today agrees to the in-house creation of a fully
integrated system has a fool for a boss.  If a librarian or
library programmer has that level of skill, use that talent to
address problems that, as yet, have no solutions.  All too often,
librarians think about the here and now but seem oblivious to the
infrastructure needs of maintenance which includes re-coding for
changes in the environment, in this case the Web Browser
environment.  

Vendors are working on the Web interface piece, slowly I grant. 
Clunky, too.  It, again, is not a trivial piece, what with there
being multiple browsers that have new versions with new
capabilities (and new challenges) all of the time.  But why
re-invent the wheel?  Recall the old addage, 'why is it that
libraries never have enough money to do it right in the first
place, but they always have the money to do it over.'  

Use that ability to create extension through API hooks in
existing systems -- something many libraries can use and benefit
from.  Take a leap across the barrier into untouched territory or
where commercial products are horribly expensive because they are
the only ones doing it.  Don't do same-same over-over.  Boldly go
where no one has gone before.

-- 

Debbie

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Debra Lords			Experience is what you
dlords at library.utah.edu		have just right after 
ACLIS Labs			you need it.
585-9810