[Web4lib] Who Moved My Ultrafiche & 8-Tracks? Insights for the Future

[Dan Lester]

At Internet Librarian 2008 in October in Monterey, CA, I'm speaking on
the topic described in the subject line.  I've copied the description
in the program at the bottom of this message in case you wish to refer
to it.

Basically, what I'm interested in adding to my latest draft is any
more "war stories" that any of you care to share, by private email
preferably.  If I use them I will keep you and your employer anonymous
unless you wish to be identified.

What technologies have you tried that have failed?  If they failed,
why did they fail?  Ahead of their times?  Failed
manufacturer/developer?  Bad judgment by one or more folks? Resistance
from colleagues or administrators?  How did you recover from the failure?

What technologies did you hold off on until you saw if they were going
to make it?  Why didn't you get in the game sooner?  Should you have
tried them sooner?

I have a number of examples from both my own experiences, plus
learning from others and the literature, but more would be useful, as
few ever tell about their "failures".

We need to continue to change and adapt, and there will always be
"failures", which are part of the cost of progress.

      After 50 years observing, using, and developing library technology, D=
an Lester has
      learned things that will help libraries to do better with further dev=
elopments of
      services to clients. Librarians who succeed do so because they=92ve b=
een willing to
      experiment and to fail; they=92ve tried technologies that died and so=
me that never
      really lived, as well as those that have evolved. So few are willing =
to discuss
      their =93failures=94 that it is often difficult for others to learn f=
rom them. As with
      all electronic technologies, those used by libraries have gotten smal=
ler, faster,
      and more interconnected, thus improving the services libraries can pr=
ovide and
      giving them the opportunity to develop ones unimagined a decade or tw=
o ago. Few
      libraries can deal with all of them at once, but trying many and deve=
loping a
      selected few will lead to greater successes for the library and for t=
he clients.
      Which ones should you try? How can you improve your chances of succes=
s? How do you
      convince your managers to let you try new things? Our experienced IL =
veteran
      discusses these and shares his learnings.

Thanks.  I look forward to some interesting responses.

dan

p.s. If you have any particularly interesting images that might be
useful, let me know, or send them along.