hi!
jim's formulation about the Copernican shift is great! i'm not sure where
the center of the "online information discovery" universe/google/solar
system is -- maybe google, but i heard that microsoft is about to try and
bump google. however, i've never considered a library catalog (whatever
format) to be the center of anything other than a library.
somehow the catalog became online (often the first online service), and
then somehow folks began thinking of the catalog as some kind of center of
information delivery. now there is great disappointment that it's not the
"center" anymore.
but i really think it's hard to make the case that library catalogs were
ever the center of "information delivery." most information in the world
has traditionally been circulated outside of libraries, and continues to
do so. you used to be able to rely on barber shops, churches, coffee
counters, etc. to get some good tidbits. now we can rely on google, msn,
ask.com, barber shops, churches, invisible networks, whatever.
i don't see how this discussion can move forward until there is some kind
of common understanding of what the purpose of the library catalog is. if
it is to serve as portal to information--then let's give it up, because
google, wikipedia, barber shops, etc. are going to do a much better job.
if it's going to serve as a mechanism to describe, control, and access a
library collection, then we have a much better chance at agreeing on what
it will take to do that.
--r
A. Ralph Papakhian, Indiana University Music Library
Bloomington, IN 47405 812/855-2970 [log in to unmask]
co-owner: [log in to unmask]
On Tue, 2 May 2006, Jim LeBlanc wrote:
> ... Her
> paper suggests (I think) a kind of Copernican shift towards using the
> (evolving) catalog as one tool among many for online information
> discovery, and not as the center of the library's information discovery
> universe. Research on, and implementation of models such as HILCC
> represent attempts to add more such tools to our belt.
....
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