Sacred Cow #2
Posted On Aug 7 2008Sorry for the long gap between cows…I had some technical difficulties that were making it hard for me to blog. On with it… I’ve been thinking about one of the most bloated sacred cows in library management systems. No, not the MARC record–I’ll leave that one to others. I’m talking about Circulation Rules. It’s become almost cliche to compare what we do in libraries (and this accusation is pointed primarily at academic libraries) to a typical commercial customer service. Picture me at the Blockbuster checkout desk. Me: Hi, I’m visiting here for the next six months and was wondering if …
Sacred Cow #1
Posted On Jul 16 2008You’ve likely already heard that OCLC has released a new report on library advocacy. But today, I’m wishing that the previous one had gotten more attention from the library community. Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World got some serious attention from the social networking cliques, but I was really hoping that it would open the dialog about privacy expectations some more. I attended a lecture on privacy at NCSU once where the speaker mentioned that we are living in a climate where most undergraduates would trade a DNA sample for an Extra Value Meal. A nice throw-away line, …