[Web4lib] RE: [Dewey-lessArizonapubliclibrary

[K.G. Schneider]

> 1. It would be interesting to have a professional tell us about what is
> going on as opposed to a newspaper article. Wonder how much of what we
> are all reacting to is the reporter's non-librarian interpretation of
> what the staff said and has done?

I have an article I'm posting this week (NLT Wednesday morning) for
Techsource that is about both Maricopa and another library doing something
remarkably similar in the online environment. I was going to post it just
before ALA, but ended up posting about RDA and Dublin Core instead. I
interviewed Maricopa extensively and was very intrigued by their approach to
the problem, and how it paralleled similar rethinking in the online world
(where the BISAC concept may work even better than it does in a print
library).

I don't think the NYT article is too off the mark, though the card catalog
comment was funny. It doesn't harm anything for a reporter to act surprised
that a card catalog is gone, and it reflects well that we have libraries
interested in rethinking service to users and that the press cares to cover
that. As for blog postings such as the ones titled "Heresy," well, like they
say in some online forums, you own your own words. Some librarians actually
think that way. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at freerangelibrarian.com