Weinheimer Jim wrote:
> Bernhard Eversberg wrote:
> >
> > We might first have to say why library catalogs are still a better
> > solution to many problems of searching, before we begin advocating
their
> > improvement via RDA and FRBR.
Another consideration that we should not overlook is that catalogs
serve not only the public, but they are also our inventory tools.
Librarians must manage the collection efficiently, and we need the
tools to do that.
Yes. Like other organizations, libraries now perform all or at least
most of their management tasks using computers -- this includes
inventory, purchasing and fund accounting, collection development,
serials check-in, etc. I think we are unusual, however, in that our user
interface is so deeply integrated into the same system.
This has led to a point of view that I think is problematic. It makes
sense that the library focuses on the library - the library's holdings
and the library's services - because that is what the library must
manage. But it doesn't make sense for the user to focus on the library.
The user is interested in information, cultural expansion, leisure,
etc., and the library is only one source of these. The user who is at
that moment in the library is perhaps focusing on the library, but the
rest of the time the user view is broader. Unlike the library, the
Internet gives the user that broader view.
I think we have made a mistake in focusing on the catalog as the main
user tool. Our model for user service should instead be the reference
service. The catalog is inherently about the library's holdings, already
a narrow scope. In reference service, the user comes in with a general
information request, and the library seeks to connect the user to that
information, regardless of whether it leads to an item in the library's
catalog. We have to quit thinking that catalog = library, and start
looking at a wider range of services that we can (and do) provide.
kc
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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
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fx.: 510-848-3913
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