[Web4lib] Re: Future of libraries

[Dan Lester]

Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 11:11:09 AM, you wrote:

> I guess I'd phrase things a little differently.  Most of the new
> technologies that have come about didn't originate uniquely for
> libraries.  We are just too small a market.  For instance we didn't
> invent the barcode idea; it was adapted from the larger marketplace.

BINGO!!  That's exactly the case of all of the tools that we use.
Sure, aggregators like Ebsco or Gale have built tools to sell or lease
to libraries, but they're using tools that were invented elsewhere.

I first learned this valuable lesson in 1968 when I was invited to an
IBM Management Conference on Library Automation in Poughkeepsie, NY,
at one of their fancy conference facilities.  We were wined and dined
pretty lavishly (the former unofficially, of course) and learned about
the latest developments in punched card and computer technology for
libraries.  The VP of the Museums and Libraries Division spoke to us
for a couple of hours one day.  (Note the sequence of names in his
title, too).  Although we'd been hosted by his division, and his staff
had told us about the wonderful things we could do with a System
360/65 (which was very large, and had less power than my laptop), he
let us know that this would probably be the last such event.  He told
us that the division was likely to be merged into other units, but
that they still had people who would love to work with libraries in
developing products and services.   Indeed, the division was abolished
not long after.

WHY was it being abolished?  The answer was simple: "Museums and
Libraries are too small of a market for IBM to be interested in."

At about that time several small companies started developing library
software (who was first, and which, if any, are still alive, is left
as an exercise for the student).  But IBM bailed because we were, and
are, too small.

Univac and others bailed in the same way not too long afterwards.

dan

-- 
The road goes on forever and the party never ends. REK, Jr. 
Dan Lester, Boise, ID