[WEB4LIB] Re: library marketing was RE: Google Mail invitations? Any takers?

[Monica Hammes]

I want to link one of the headings of the Abram article, "Making the library 
discoverable", to the ubiquity issue that has been mentioned throughout the 
discussion.

One of the things that have struck me about Amazon ever since they started is 
the way they manage to position themsevles on the web in such a way that I 
quite often walk through their virtual doors when I definitely did not have 
that intention in the first place: a kind of "have you considered Amazon as the 
solution to your current information need?"

Is it technically feasible to create such an invitation to appear whenever 
someone uses a search engine from the university domain? At least this could 
act as a catchment area for customers who have already made up their minds that 
Google is their first choice.

Monica Hammes

Quoting "Sloan, Bernie" <bernies at uillinois.edu>:

> This discussion reminds me of something Stephen Abram said in an
> article
> in the February 1 issue of Library Journal. He concludes the article
> by
> saying "Sixty-five million years ago the Age of Reptiles came to a
> cataclysmic extinction known as The Great Dying. There is still
> controversy over what happened, but all theories agree that the
> dinosaurs died out because the environment changed and they couldn't
> adapt. Librarians are well positioned to thrive. But the future is not
> what it used to be. Our enterprise is no longer an extension of the
> past."
> 
> The full article is available at:
> 
> Abram, Stephen. The Google Opportunity. Library Journal, 130(2),
> 34-35.
> February 1, 2005.
> http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA498846  
> 
> Bernie Sloan
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib at webjunction.org
> [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Mr. Brian Collier
> Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 5:42 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: library marketing was RE: Google Mail
> invitations? Any takers?
> 
> This is veering off topic, but I have to disagree with Roy's
> evaluation
> of A and B. 
> 
> There's no question that we provide what people want. Barnes and
> Noble,
> the NY Times, Netflix, and ISPs charge for the same stuff that
> libraries
> GIVE AWAY in the form of books, movies, periodicals, and computer
> access. As far as ease of access, all people have to do is walk, run,
> bike, or drive to their community library. I suppose we could make it
> easier for some people to get that information if we streamed it
> digitally, but given the relatively low percentage of the population
> that has a computer and broadband connection, we'd be missing too many
> consumers.
> 
> The crux of the question was how can we make library services
> "trendy",
> and that's the problem. I for one don't want my library to be trendy.
> (Starbucks anyone?)
> 
> Maybe library services don't get the online popularity that Google
> enjoys, and while this list is all about Web library services, that's
> not our home turf. We (largely publicly funded entities) can't compete
> with Google (a private corporation) that way, nor should we. We are
> not
> an online mogul, we serve the public face-to-face in a distributed
> network. Take a gate count. How many people came into your library
> this
> week? Multiply that by the number of public libraries in your state,
> or
> better yet by the number of libraries in the U.S. or across the globe.
> 
> To bring things somewhat back within the scope of this list; we can
> and
> should use online tools to provide another layer of service to the
> community, which is why we're getting these messages in our inboxes,
> but
> if we lose sight of the fact that we are not an online service, then
> we
> may as well shut the doors and let Google take over.
> 
> Brian Collier  
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib at webjunction.org
> [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Roy Tennant
> Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 5:31 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: library marketing was RE: Google Mail
> invitations? Any takers?
> 
> On Feb 14, 2005, at 2:23 PM, Margaret Henderson wrote:
> 
> > How can we make library
> > services as trendy as Gogle mail?
> 
> A) Provide something people really want, and B) make it easy to get.
> 
> In general, we do so-so on A and suck at B. Next question?
> Roy
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



Monica Hammes
E-Scholarship Coordinator
Academic Information Service
University of Pretoria
Pretoria
South Africa
Tel +27-12-4202845
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