[WEB4LIB] RE: Database in your face? [Summary]

[Drew, Bill]

Nice set of responses.  I am troubled a great deal by the first response:

> "This is the old "OPAC" vs. "Find Books" debate. Your users 
> "don't relate"
> because they aren't accustomed to the overlapping 
> intermediate steps to
> finding library information (cf Google). Short of educating 
> users about
> databases and catalogs, there's only so much dumbing down 
> you can do with
> the terminology for the array of search tools a library offers."


I do not agree at all with the general assumption that they are missing
intermediate steps.
All we are doing is changing the terminology if we make the link read "Find
books" instead of "search the OPAC".
We are not developing a web page for librarians.  It is for students and
others.  This is not dumbing down.  This is speaking english instead of
technospeak.

Bill Drew