[Web4lib] Interesting article about the future of thelibrarycatalog

[Andrew Hankinson]

I would wonder if libraries have a wider range of materials or user  
types than Amazon, and I also wonder why such emphasis is placed on  
the difference between undergraduates and researchers with regards to  
using the library catalogue.  They are both using it for the same  
reason - to find material important to them for their work.

I think in many ways we build this distinction up to a point where it  
becomes an issue, rather than work to eliminate it.  A researcher, by  
virtue of having used library systems in the past, is more familiar  
with the way they work than a first or second-year undergraduate  
student.  It follows, then, that they use the system more  
intelligently and extensively than an undergraduate student, because  
our systems have such a relatively high* barrier of entry and you  
need experience in order to use them effectively. (* high in  
comparison to Amazon)

Sites like Amazon, however, break that barrier down - undergraduates  
and graduates, professors, librarians and researchers can use it to  
find what they are looking for, often to great effect and a lot of  
times with much more ease than their own library catalogue.

On 16-Jan-07, at 5:03 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:

> 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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