Friday, October 3, 2008
Week 7 Readings - Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
This article is clearly written for the library community - I'm not familiar enough witl the vendors to comment. But the intent of the article was clear - to highlight the problem of managing library resources and users in an environment where the resources and tools are not integrated. Not being integrates is not the norm in other institutional settings. And from a user standpoint, I find this lack of integration somewhat maddening. It's difficult to determine what resources a library has unless there is very well written documentation about it. Academic libraries seem to do a better job on their web pages than public libraries, but the ones I have experience with don't provide the most clear documentation on what they hyave to offer and how to use it.
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2 comments:
I have to say that I find the Carnegie Library's web page a good one. I have often used it to request a book or dvd for myself or my son be sent from one branch to my local branch. It's always easy to figure out if my branch has what I want, where it is if they don't, and how to request it. The turnaround time is quick, and they email and call me as soon as the articles arrive at my local branch. Although, I'd expect the Carnegie system to be good...
I'm not from a library setting, but from the business world. My reading on this article was similar to yours. I kind of had the reaction of, "OK, but so what? Get over it." Libraries still need to figure out a way to integrate and it needs to become a priority.
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