[Web4lib] Interesting article about the future of thelibrarycatalog

[Karen Coyle]

Pons, Lisa (ponslm) wrote:
> I still think Amazon.com is a model for libraries. A model that perhaps
> should not be copied identically, but the basic interaction, that I can
> simply search (in one box, or using advanced) for an item, and get
> results returned based on ratings. Or, I can change the way those
> results are displayed. Additionally, I can limit my results if I am only
> looking for DVD's etc... Or, I could decide to ONLY search for DVD's....
>
> I would be interested to hear from others why this approach wouldn't
> work for libraries.
>
>   
In other discussions where this has come up, there have been postings 
from librarians who don't think this approach would work in their 
libraries. One difficulty is the library with a great range of materials 
and user types. I think many large research libraries have this problem 
-- they have beginners (undergrads) and experts (researchers). They have 
popular materials and rare manuscript materials. My general thinking at 
the moment is that we may need to fit our cataloging and our catalog to 
the particular needs of our users, so a research library might have an 
Amazon-like interface in which there is limited metadata but full-text 
access for the general user, and there may be a more library-like 
catalog for those who need to search on the presence of a particular 
bookplate or printer's mark.

While one might argue that these will be difficult decisions to make, in 
fact libraries make similar decisions already, doing minimal cataloging 
for items that are considered to be of little interest (and often get 
stored away off-site), accepting copy for cataloging without making 
changes for modern and current items, and doing full cataloging in their 
rare book and archival departments.
-- 

-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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