[Web4lib] Re: Dewey or Don't We or Books and Oranges

[Robert Balliot]

Comparing a library scheme with a grocery store is comparing books with
oranges. Books are not the product, they are the product containers. Do
you know what is inside a book in a pile of books twenty yards away without
a catalog? Do you know what is inside an orange in a pile of oranges twenty
yards away?  What we need are better OPACs.

Can we rethink the OPAC?  What about having a voice activated or even a
breath activated interface?

Here is a great site to help you start imagining the possibilities - I got a
huge kick out of it:

http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/#research



On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 7:58 PM, Elizabeth Thorson
<EThorson at lclsonline.org>wrote:

>  I can't think of many other consumer-oriented places that have
> potentially thousands or millions of unique items, other than a library or
> bookstore. IKEA? Not that many items, I don't think. Hardware store? Maybe.
>
> Elizabeth (who also likes the idea of the um, creative, shoe thing)
>
> >>> "Karen Schneider" <kgschneider at gmail.com> 1/9/2009 5:14 PM >>>
>
> show me a place that is consumer-oriented. :)
>
> Karen (who really thinks that brown shoe/black shoe thing could catch
> on...)
>
>
>