FW: Desperately seeking

[Kevil, L H.]

Hi Eric,

It could be very plausibly argued that librarians DID in fact go wrong -
part wrong, at least - with respect to serial cataloguing. It is common
knowledge that serials are hard to find in the typical catalogue. As the
former head of a serials unit I am perhaps overly sensitive to the many ways
users and library staff can fail to locate a desired serial. But it is clear
that these failures unfortunately lead many users to give up and just take
to the periodicals room, the stacks, or an alphabetical list.

To follow this train of thought a bit, it seems to me that if OpenURL is to
succeed, we will need a really good way for human beings and machines to
locate serials in library catalogues and other places. ISSN, for several
reasons, is not the universal and persistent identifier we need. I would be
interested in your thoughts on this problem.

L. Hunter Kevil
Collection Development Librarian
176 Elmer Ellis Library
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO 65201

KevilL at missouri.edu
573-884-8760 voice
573-882-6034 facsimile

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Hellman [mailto:eric at openly.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 11:32 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Desperately seeking


I don't think that the librarians went "wrong" at all. The tools I 
needed were all there, sensibly deployed. My first course was, as I 
said to look in the alphabetically arranged stacks, and my comfort 
with that method, despite its quirks, led me to avoid the others.

I don't think I was the only researcher with the following personality
traits:
1. is a bit shy
2. hates to admit needing help (it's a guy thing)
3. is very impatient
So these traits explain my avoidance of the librarians. Not a lot you 
can change there.

As for my avoidance of on-line catalogs, remember that in the 
pre-linking era (which is far from at an end) there's typically not a 
good way of getting from the catalog to where I really want to be. 
It's important to remember that while a researcher may ask a 
librarian "do you have article x?"  or "where do I find article x?", 
the researchers have infinitesimal interest in the answers once they 
have obtained article x. The on-line catalog is NEVER where the 
researcher wants to be, no matter how good or friendly it is. This is 
not as true for students who often don't know what they want.

"Insinuating" the library into research before the need arises is 
exactly what OpenURL is about. I think I'll use that line in my next 
talk.

Eric

>Hello, I cannot resist the temptation to comment on your 
>"roundabout" piece on searching out citations.  Why is it that only 
>desperation led you to consult the on-line catalog and only true 
>desperation reduced you to seeking out a librarian (who was, 
>apparently, not there for you).  Where did we (librarians) go wrong? 
>How is it that researchers only think of our services in periods of 
>agitation?  How can we insinuate ourselves into research before the 
>crisis?
>
>Agitatedly,
>
>David Block
>
>David Block
>Head Bibliographer
>Cornell University Library
>504 Olin Library
-- 

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