[Web4lib] Re: The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?"

[K.G. Schneider]

> On 6/26/07, Jesse Ephraim <JEphraim at ci.southlake.tx.us> wrote:
> >
> > I'm also very interested in finding out how the "Ultimate Debate" went.
> > I was a professional programmer for almost a decade, so I tend to have
> > pretty strong feelings about the technical side of library innovation.
> >
> > My biggest pet peeve with library technology is MARC records - until the
> > library world is ready to move to a non-archaic form of data storage, I
> > doubt that much will improve.  If anyone went to the event, was that
> > discussed?
> >
> > Jesse Ephraim

Jesse, I addressed this glancingly when Stephen Abram and I disagreed over
whether it was innovative to pursue initiatives such as Endeca on top of
catalogs. I pointed out that it was hard to make radical separations or to
move our data onto the Web when we are chained to an obsolete data structure
that is complicated to work with. (At least I recall myself being this
eloquent ;> )

I would add that repositioning our world-view toward making it easier for
users is a big innovation in libraries. In the past, our ideal end-user was
another librarian. 

You can read more about my thoughts on this issue in my Techsource article
about RDA. I now wish I had pushed interoperability more than the Semantic
Web (and I also wish I had spelled Diane Hillmann's name correctly...).
Still, it may be useful. I encourage your comments. 

http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2007/06/out-of-the-secret-garden-the-rdad
c-initiative.html 

or

http://tinyurl.com/35n4at

K.G. Schneider
kgs at freerangelibrarian.com