TTW readers know I love a good “Ten Things” post! Run, do not walk to:
http://infonatives.wordpress.com/
Ten great things an online academic library can do:
- Communicate with the academic community
- Get proper subject librarians who know their stuff to generate the content for the library website!
- Provide high-quality, easy to use tools to put the content the users created online in various formats (see 4)
- Keep the content updated
- Provide consistent interfaces, preferably a single consistent interface where possible
- Present users with the resources they use, making things one click away
- Structure information, making it customizable where this is appropriate
- Make sure that everyone in the library is on the same page regarding services, ensure that users are getting the course offerings they want/need
- Provide a library toolbar
- Evangelize!
And Ten brainless things an online academic library can do:
- Not actively talking (listening) to the academic community
- Cut away the subject-specific angle and quality assurance in favour of a “streamlined”, centralized appearance
- Go static
- Implement technologies that help administration, but not the user
- Bolt bits on the old design to make it two-oh
- Federated search, but no training
- Cut away the OPAC in favour of ancillary systems (for example eJournal and database repositories)
- Rely on third parties with whom you have no trust relation to store important information
- Focus on what’s new/important/good rather than what’s being used
- Aquabrowser
- [BONUS] Providing five databases when one would have sufficed
Well said. PLEASE click through and read the explanations for all of the points. I would urge academic library folk to look at these very seriously in a staff meeting.
In my book, this is gold:
… if you’re not actively working with the academic communities you serve — and I mean really listening to them, helping them do their work in their way — you’re not going to do a good job. Libraries and librarians are mostly good at librarying, unfortunately the rest of the world isn’t interested; stop it.
The same might be said for instructional support in many institutions. <cough> Firefox <cough>
I don’t know. Isn’t Aquabrowser the tool that U of Chicago is now using? Someone in my Library User Instruction class did a session on it…and it’s freaking Sweet!! So I don’t really think that would be a step back as much as about…a million steps forward from bland boring catalogs that nobody uses.
good commitment
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Leah – I haven’t used Aquabrowser that much… I’m glad you liked it. I’ll have to investigate further. Maybe we need a learning lab at school where we can pit ILS and ILS features against each other for comparison.
Michael – Like an ultimate wrestling competition but with integrated library systems instead of sweaty guys in costume? omg I’m so in. 😛