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| Issue 174 | Tuesday, September 14, 1999 |
09:02:27 AM |
For a
bi-monthly wrap up of NOLA news and information, be sure to check out NOLA Notes! |
||
| Library News |
Ravenna Mosaics
The City of Ravenna and the Ravenna Bicentennial Commission
is hosting an exhibit of mosiacs from our namesake city, Ravenna, Italy. The display opens
Sunday evening September 12 at Ravenna Savings Bank, 999 E. Main Street, Ravenna. The
display will be open to the public during normal bank hours, Tuesday evenings , 6:00 pm to
8:00 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm from September 12 through at least
October 12. Additional evening and weekend hours will be considered later. Go to http://www.reed.lib.oh.us/mosaics/mosaics.html
for additional information along with descriptions of the mosaics to be displayed.
Items submitted by:
Brad Stephens - Email
NOLA Regional Library System
| Thoughts on Building Earth's Largest Library - Brad Stephens and Donna Wall |
Recent traffic on the PubLib listserv has included an on-going thread about Steve Coffman’s article "Building the Earth’s Largest Library". In his article Coffman, Director of FYI – the fee based business information service at Los Angeles Public Library, discusses one possible future for library catalogs, collections, and ILL. The article below highlights some of the major points raised in Coffman’s piece, which can be viewed in it’s entirety at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar/coffman.htm
Few can argue with the statement that Amazon has managed to become a true Internet success story by providing users with access to their extensive "collection" without the limitations of geography or time. How can libraries use this model to enhance their offerings? In his article Coffman points out some of the major differences between the Amazon business model and the collection and ILL policies of the typical public library.
Amazon stocks only about 10% of the 3 million unique print titles listed in their catalog - is other words their philosophy is show users what they can get, not just what is locally held. This is different than the approach of the traditional library to catalog development. Most libraries typcailly list only titles in their catalog which are owned by the institution. However if library catalogs were based on the Amazon business model Mr. Coffman proposes that the library community could develop an enormous collection of titles in a similar system, only in this case the collection would be comprised of nearly 43 million unique items (being based on BIP, OCLC, and other major record sources) – by far the "Earth’s Largest Library".
In addition to creating this giant union catalog Coffman proposes two additional changes to make the traditional library catalog more like Amazon's database:
- In addition to listing millions of titles and providing multiple access points (author, title, ISBN, subject, etc.) Amazon adds reader advisory services to the "catalog", and allows users to create lists of records in hundreds of different ways.
- Amazon adds value to an every growing number of their records by including blurbs, trade reviews, user reviews, book jacket photos and more – leading to an arguably more useful piece of information than the traditional MARC record , Coffman believes that libraries could make use of these enhanced records.
Do you think the library community as a whole would benefit from these changes to catalog records and record access points?
Once this giant catalog exists Coffman belives that it could be used by patrons everywhere to request any material listed in the collection (any item, any where, any time). Coffman argues that the typical patron doesn’t much care about the source of the materials – just the availability and time required for delivery. His discussion suggests changes in some of the traditional philosophies related to both ILL and collection development. Under this model libraries would be permitting patron initiated ILL, something that many public and school libraries have been reluctant to do, often sighting the "lack of user expertise" as a reason to not allow this type of ILL. One of the primary arguements offered by Coffman is that effective patron-based ILL is a is a function of catalog design and that user-based purchasing (a similar concept to ILL) has worked well for Amazon. Another very controversial suggestion offered by Coffman is a change in collection development policy. He suggest moving from a just in case activity (we’ll buy this book just in case someone wants it); to a just in time activity where popular materials are kept "in stock" (on the shelves) and others are requested via ILL. This is a signficant change from the typical library collection development policy and certainly has some drawbacks, mainly that this type of collection development policy could lead to a weakness of collections in "non-popular" areas, but the author argues that this would likely not be an issue. He feels that libraries would collect locally popular materials which should lead to sufficient diversity in a global collection, also mentioned is the possibility of cooperative global collection development.
As you can see, the proposal raises many issues, all focused on the premise that libraries work not as an individual entity or entities but as what might be best described as "distribution centers." There are those who would say that libraries already perform the distribution role however, Coffman is taking the premise of what we know as customer service to the next step; ie. that libraries relinquish their individuality for a common goal, to provide the product without any limitations at all. For those fans of Star Trek, think of the collective known as the BORG…..just as the BORG needed to erase individuality to "survive," libraries would need to negate their individuality, that same individuality that makes them unique, so to speak, to provide "what the customers want", not only locally but throughout the world!
As those libraries who have done community surveys and the like can attest, giving the customers what they want at any time, no matter the format, can be no easy task not alone sending the material halfway across the planet. Another challenge would be to convince an individual library’s governing body whose traditional concerns are for local control and fiscal responsibility. After all, who is going to fund this project and how many staff is it going to take? No easy task. Coffman’s premise is that "if we [as librarians] prove unequal to the task as a profession, plenty of others will step into the breach and do it for us."
Yet libraries are responding and persevering, albeit not as fast as many of us would like them. They are becoming savvy marketers of their unique services and personalized attention. Coffman’s article, although visionary to say the least in its approach, may inadvertently minimize the most import element, the human one with all its corresponding frailties. Remember, we still need to deal with those in the "collective" who do not know what they want and how to get it. Knowing human nature, many of the "distributors" will need incentives, some of them strong, to cooperate as well.
The Earth’s Largest Library has to be a "win/win" situation for everyone involved and that may be the greatest vision of all. The concept that a person doesn’t need libraries anymore to fulfill his information needs is already being promulgated not only from online vendors but also by many in educational institutions as well. Time is passing and an opportunity for the profession has been presented. For those who wish to explore further, NORWELD will be airing the teleconference on October 28 at 3 p.m. at Kaubisch Memorial Public Library and at Bowling Green State University-Firelands. NOLA has ordered a video tape of the teleconference that will be available to members in mid-November.
Items submitted by:
Brad Stephens and Donna Wall
| Education Station - Lori Putt/CE Consultant |
A Little Y2K Humor
A secretary's memo to his/her boss:
To: My Boss
Subject: Changing calendars from Y2K
I hope that I haven't misunderstood your instructions because, to be honest, none of this
Y to K problem made much sense to me. At any rate, I have finished the conversion of all
of the months on all of the company's calendars for next year. The calendars have been
returned from the printer and are ready to be distributed with the following new months:
Januark
Februark
Mak
Julk
I have also changed all of the days of the week to:
Sundak
Mondak
Tuesdak
Wednesdak
Thursdak
Fridak
Saturdak
We are now Y to K compliant.
Items submitted by:
Lori Putt - Email
NOLA Regional Library System
| CyberStuff from Reflinks |
Ever get one of those annoying songs in your head that just won't go away? Watch
out....here comes another one.....
It's a small world after all (Reflinks
525 NASA'S Earth Science Image Gallery)
It's a small world after all (Reflinks
550 Earth Science Enterpirse)
It's a small world after all (Reflinks
910 The Mariner's Museum-Age of Exploration)
It's a small, small world. (Reflinks
530 The Science of Particle Physics)
All together now.....
Items submitted by:
Reflinks Members [email protected]