[Web4lib] Results from The Survey of Academic Libraries, 2008-09 Edition

[Dan Lester]

Am I the only one who is getting REALLY tired of all of the
solicitations for us to buy books (or PDF files) that were created
from surveys they previously solicited some of us to respond to?
Responses are to these totally unscientific surveys, as filled out by
those few of us who bothered to do so?  Wow, 75 libraries of assorted
sizes and missions, out of the thousands in the US and Canada, now
there's a great and meaningful sample.  I'll bet that most weren't even
filled out by those with responsibilities in the areas in question.
Any one of us could fill out a survey, whether it was on a subject we
were responsible for or knew anything about, or not.  Any professor
teaching basic statistics on any campus would either choke or laugh
out loud at this kind of nonsense. Then they massage the data into a
number of tables with no way of knowing of any statistical or other
significance to the results.  Then they sell it for a hundred bucks
or so (often more) so that we can look at it and perhaps even add
it to our collection?

I will say one thing for them, they make Haworth Press look mighty
good.  Haworth Press is at least professional and knowledgeable enough to
use their own domain name instead of an AOL address of all things.
I've not seen a real business use an AOL address in quite a few years.

Finally, where do we draw the line on marketing on this list?
I'm not opposed to marketing as such, but....there are limits, aren't
there?  There's a "reference question" for someone...where does
legitimate marketing end and spam begin, whether for Viagra or books
and documents?

dan

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