[Web4lib] The data death spiral

[Thomas Edelblute]

I went to the link and read it through.  My first thought is that "these
suckers that are that disillusioned to follow data that way can be too
easily manipulated with false data."  Just check out my dad's favorite
book from decades back "How to lie with statistics" (I forget who the
author is). 


Thomas Edelblute
Anaheim Public Library

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Alexander
Johannesen
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 5:29 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] The data death spiral

Hi folks,

On the SIGIA-L list someone pointed to
http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/?p=147, and I got stuck on number two ;

"No opinions are considered without data. Opinions are good if they come
from smart thoughtful experts. If you are in a world where you, as an
expert, can't make obvious improvements without 10 pages of supporting
material, guess what happens? Nothing happens. People spend all their
time defending the obvious and the scale of work, and the energy to
improve, drops dramatically."

Given the commitee structures of the library world, does anybody but me
feel I'm living in this spiral?


Alex
--
"Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know."
                                                         - Frank Herbert
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