[Web4lib] More on the Open Content Alliance

[Jennifer Heise]

Huh? 'In many cases you have choices'?
You're darn right it isn't Google Library-- the desire to do something cool
and splashy instead of being easy to read, which haunts librarianship, has
clearly run amuck there. I don't care if it's 'quite beautiful', I want to
be able to use it. And the main pages just don't work, either of them.
Sneaking around to the 'back door' via directory listing isn't a 'choice' of
how to view it, it's a kludgey work-around. There's no direct link to a
'side door' for text from either of the front pages, and there's no obvious
list of the texts available.

You don't have to abandon useable design just to distance your website from
Google.

-- Jenne Heise

On 10/27/05, Roy Tennant <roy.tennant at ucop.edu> wrote:
>
> I have to agree that this form of presentation isn't necessarily the
> best. Although if things work well it provides a "gee whiz" kind of
> experience, I personally think the "page turning" animation is just a
> tad too cutesy while potentially introducing problems. But whatever.
> The thing with the Open Content Alliance is that if you don't like
> the presentation at that site, grab it and put it up in a way that
> floats your boat. Go get it at <http://ia300002.us.archive.org/1/
> items/openlibrary/>. Remember, this project is not Google Library. In
> many cases you have choices.
> Roy
>
> On Oct 27, 2005, at 6:44 AM, Enrico Silterra wrote:
>
> > I search on words I am looking at and I get "no hits".
> > I open the opening page, and I get a message from IE that there
> > are javascript errors.
> >
> > ditto on:
> > Whatever happened to good old fashioned straight HTML, eh?
> >
> > This seems like a very worthwhile project, but as a presentation
> > of the concepts behind the projects, I don't get positive feelings.
> >
> > just my 2 yoctocents,
> > Rick Silterra
> >
> >
> >
> > At 09:21 AM 10/27/2005 +0100, J.P.Knight wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Roy Tennant wrote:
> >>
> >>> <http://www.openlibrary.org/details/openlibrary>
> >>>
> >>
> >> Whatever happened to good old fashioned straight HTML, eh?
>
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