[Web4lib] RE: library automation vendors

[Jim Campbell]

One of Norman and Nancy Blake's CDs is called Just Gimme Somethin' I'm Used
To and that sums up a lot of thinking about interfaces, from both our users
and from our colleagues.

- Jim Campbell
Campbell at Virginia.edu
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 10:57 AM
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: RE: [Web4lib] RE: library automation vendors
> 
> > But why would pulling that information from a big database in Ohio 
> > instead of from a small database in Anaheim keep them from finding 
> > that out?  Or alternatively pulling the author and title 
> information 
> > from OCLC and the on shelf information from a local system and 
> > combining them for the user?
> > Your
> > existing library system probably works that way now, pulling the 
> > bibliographic information from one (or several) dataset(s) and the 
> > circulation information from another and combining them on the fly.
> 
> Consortial systems work that way. It was startling for me to 
> move from an area where the expectation was a union catalog 
> that showed "your" holdings (what you could get your hands on 
> in that facility) plus whatever you could get your hands on 
> easily (in other words, the system, which could be dozens of 
> libraries), to a far more balkanized and feudal area where 
> the catalog (and the realistic immediate availability) was 
> just items in that city or town. Not to mention that in 
> consortial systems, "nearby" is often more available than 
> in-house, because a checked-out item in your own library not 
> due back for two weeks is not as available as a item on the 
> shelf that can be in your hands in a day. 
> 
> Regarding what users want, user expectations are often driven 
> by local realities. I had a (non-librarian) boss once when I 
> was a special library director who said that people needed to 
> be conditioned to use libraries. I felt that was insightful 
> then, and it applies today. 
> 
> Re pulling the content from a database in Ohio, I think Jim's 
> questions in this area are pointed and important. It would be 
> interesting to study user experience/satisfaction and system 
> response time with Open Worldcat. 
> 
> Karen G. Schneider
> kgs at bluehighways.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>