library marketing (long, but with an on-topic point)

[William Melody]

Hopefully this won't chop off the top of my post again.

At 03:03 PM 2/15/2005, Brian Collier wrote:
>  I can walk into most libraries and pick
>up a copy of the NYT from a week ago and read the article for free. I
>can also go into a ProQuest database and search articles going back to
>the first issue of the NYT.
>  If I hit that link from Google, I can get
>today's articles for free and that's it.

That's an issue that online news services have to figure out.  What happens 
if they follow the public's advice and shift to an open archive 
model?  It's a future being publicly debated so we should probably be 
prepared for it.  Of course, if libraries can get web localization working 
nicely, we can look forward to the day when I can go straight from google 
to the library holding in one click.

My point is that we can't just expect the current apples and oranges to 
stay apples and oranges.  It's a model that's broken on both sides, since 
online tools like LexisNexis are by no means easy to use in comparison to 
web search.  As such, our job is to make our tools better, integrate the 
online experience as much as possible and find our worth in quality of 
service and ease of use.  Depending solely on our exclusive access to a 
body of information, in this case news archives, would just be making the 
same mistake all over again.  Our resources are necessary and are far, far, 
far more extensive than what's available online, but it's useless if 
patrons find other services they feel fit their needs and believe the myth 
that libraries are no longer very necessary, a belief that will only 
increase as more info gets connected.

>I just can't agree with the statement that we're a Web app, even
>metaphorically, but I do agree that internal and external participation,
>and technological innovation are necessary for the survival of
>libraries.

Our statistics and interactions with patrons show that they are moving en 
masse to online services and the feedback we get, at least in my 
department, indicates they expect our services to behave like other 
applications they use.

But libraries still have a significant physical role which, like this 
topic, is currently being debated to death.  WRT academic libraries, I like 
how Carlton College's Sam Demas put it (as noted by Kathlin Smith in CLIR 
Issues):

"[Demas] uses the ancient Library of Alexandria as a frame of reference for 
the modern library. Decrying the specialized focus of many academic 
libraries, he turns to the ideal of the Mouseion­a 'temple of the 
muses'­that was, 'in name and in fact, a research center, a museum, and a 
venue for celebrating the arts, inquiry, and scholarship.' Libraries such 
as this provide not only information resources but special collections, art 
exhibits, and performances; they also support scholarship and encourage 
engagement with it."

Add to that the library as a computing hub and you have yourself a better 
library than existed before.

So the library as a web app is just one part of the mix, but perhaps the 
most important part.  It's a major function that libraries have to 
consciously acknowledge.  This means adopting tools and methods that work, 
like making user-generated data an integral part of the services we provide.

That is actually the reason why we need to view it as a web app.  Wired's 
Chris Anderson is absolutely correct by pointing out in his Long Tail 
discussions that a web applications' success depends on how it benefits 
from user participation.  Asking what features patrons want isn't 
enough.  What makes Google and Amazon so great isn't primarily the loads of 
cash, it's the ways in which they make data generated by the users central 
to the services they provide.  The web is interaction.  People use and like 
Google's ranking because it is an artifact of mass behavior.  There's 
nothing preventing the library community from developing their own 
applications other than the inability to recognize this as a priority.

>Should we look at what makes them successful
>and emulate their strategies, even partner with them to provide access
>to information? If it furthers our mission as librarians, yes.

Sounds great to me!  In fact, I suspect there isn't really much 
disagreement between our statements here.

William Melody
Interlibrary Loan
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Dr.
Evanston, IL   60208-2323
T. 847.491.3382
w-melody at northwestern.edu
www.bibliotheke.org