Comments on: Is the Writing on the Wall for the Integrated Library System? http://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/ We're Disrupted, We're Librarians, and We're Not Going to Take It Anymore Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:48:39 +0000 hourly 1 By: Life as I know it: OPAC Blog Posts - A Listhttp://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/comment-page-1/#comment-6973 Life as I know it: OPAC Blog Posts - A List Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:09:16 +0000 http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/#comment-6973 <!--%kramer-ref-pre%-->[...] July 11, 2206 - I am no longer updating this list of OPAC Blog posts on this site. For the most recent version of this post, please visit the OPAC Blog Posts - A List via WordPress. It has become too difficult to update the list in both places.The latest assignment for my summer class is a 10-15 page paper about one cataloging related subject that we choose from a list of 15 suggested topics (due on July 17th). Although I haven’t made my final choice about the theme of the paper, many of the suggestions on the professor’s list deal with the automated library catalog and the user’s experience of searching. I’m interested in using some of the recent blog discussions about the OPAC/library catalog/ILS as part of my paper. As such, I’ve started putting together a list of relevant blog posts. This list is a work in progress. I intend to update the list - and start annotating it as part of my research. LibrarianInBlack Karen and the Sucky OPAC - The LibrarianInBlack comments on Karen Schneider’s “How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It),” The LIB comments that ” This relevancy ranking issue is one of those changes I’d like to see happen. I agree with Karen that this is something that librarians should be demanding…not simply wishing for.” Library website goals - The LIB agrees about the importance of single sign on (which isn’t something that we are even close to at my small library either!!) and references John Blyberg’s post Library 2.0 websites: Where to begin? Family Man Librarian Library online catalogs and relevancy ranking[updated] - A post in which the Family Man Librarian disagrees with Karen Schneiders’ post How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It). The FML takes issue with Karen’s points that most online catalogs don’t have relevance ranking and that ILS vendors are wholly to blame for this lack of relevance ranking. FML contends that we need to “look at both sides of the issue and especially do not be so quick to lay blame without truly understanding the reality of what vendors provide and what they do.” Blyberg.net 2006: the year of the phoenix OPAC? - In this post, John Blyberg points to several significant developments in OPACs: NCSU’s new online catalog, Casey Bisson’s WordPress OPAC project, Ed Vielmetti’s third-party library apps with RSS feeds and Dave Pattern’s work with a new patron-oriented presentation layer to the OPAC. Blyberg’s own experiences also lead him to conclude that the public is “hungry” for social additives to the catalog. Blyberg writes that 2006 “is shaping up to be the year a new OPAC vision is created.” ILS Customer Bill of Rights - John Blyberg details “four simple, but fundamental” needs from ILS vendors: 1) Open, read-only, direct access to the database, 2)A full-blown, W3C standards-based API to all read-write functions, 3)The option to run the ILS on hardware of our choice, on servers that we administer and 4) High security standards. Library 2.0 websites: Where to begin? - John suggests five directives to help redesign library web sites: social software, open-source software, single sign-on, open standards and an integrated OPAC. Why bother: the impact of social OPACs - Blyberg makes is clear that he does not “think we are doomed if we choose not to implement social software in our OPAC.” He contends that by adding social software and/or applications we can create a feeling of community within our OPACs. One key point is that “findability is not the goal, but the activity and the experience which is why I say that OPACs have the potential to be fascinating places to visit and browse.” OPACs in the frying pan, Vendors in the fires - A round up of blog posts about OPACs, ILS and vendors for early June 2006. A Wandering Eyre Actual Reasons Why My OPAC Sucks - Jane offers 16 actual reasons why her OPAC sucks in response to an actual comment. OPACS (everyone together now) SUCK - Jane reflects about the the concepts of tracking and finding in relation to the OPAC and about how they are different. She suggests that these two concepts intersect at the point where we need to locate an item at a specific moment in time and that this is a good starting point for the conversation about how to make things easier to find. We Are Broken, Not Them - A response to Karen Schneider’s post THE USER IS NOT BROKEN: A MEME MASQUERDING AS A MANIFESTO in which Jane adds several of her own points to Karen’s. ALA TechSource From Swine to Divine: NCSU Unveils New Online Catalog - by Teresa Koltzenburg The Revolution Will be Folksonomied - by Karen G. Schneider Measuring My First CIL - by Tom Peters How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It) - by Karen G. Schneider How OPACs Suck, Part 2: The Checklist of Shame - by Karen G. Schneider How OPACs Suck, Part 3: The Big Picture - by Karen G. Scheider Maison Bisson …And Then You Realize You Wasted Your Life Raging Arguments About The Future of the ILS Presentation: Designing an OPAC for Web 2.0 WPopac: An OPAC 2.0 Testbed WPopac Gets Googled Free Markets, Bad Products, Slow Change Rates Library Garden Catching Up Disruptive Library Technology Jester Is the Writing on the Wall for the Integrated Library System? “Is the Writing on the Wall?” - Take 2 Lis.dom dream of the children’s materials OPAC across the great divide What I Learned TodayState of Our ILS Touched a Nerve Librarian.netOPAC Manifesto my tag cloud and forcing an OPAC solution Science Library Paddear OPAC: change or die full text is coming . . . OPAC is going? academic libraries dislocated by technology Confessions of a Science LibrarianYour ignorance will not protect you ex librisgetting stuff into the opac Swem Review of TechnologyThe Catalog Under Scrutiny – Part 1, a look at the OPAC The Catalog Under Scrutiny - Part 2, Open Source and the ILS Librarian 1.5Talis white paper on Library 2.0 RFID, books and Library 2.0 - The Missing Link? ebyblogGoal Based Information Retrieval Experiences The Flexible OPAC Plenty of Suckage to Go Around This Old Library Spamming Google with the OPAC Library Laws are meant to be brokenMore reasons OPACs suck And so begins the law library OPAC discussion Participation LiteracyLibrary 2.0 LawLibTechHow OPACs Suck, Parts 1, 2 & 3 Enhancing Library Catalogs with Tags Crossed WiresWhat Web Users Hate Part 1: Search and Browse What Web Users Hate Part 2: Scanning the Site What Web Users Hate Part 3: Reading Library clipsOPAC in a blog and library 2.0 SLE feeds for Library OPACs Librarian in the MiddleTEACHING OPAC SKILLS The Goblin in the LibrarySlouching Towards OPAC 2.0 PanlibusPity the poor OPAC? Where is the edge of the OPAC? The OPAC is not an end in itself ACRLogMore on XC from David Lindahl Free Range LibrarianThe user is not broken: a meme masquerading as a manifesto Information Wants to Be FreeCasey Bisson Speaks! We should all listen. Dumb down the catalog? Yes, lets! The Failure of Middleware, Part 1: What’s the problem? The Failure of Middleware, Part 2: Who are our users? The Failure of Middleware, Part 3: How do we measure up? The Failure of Middleware, Part 4: What Works? The Failure of Middleware, Part 5: The Unintegrated Library System & Federated Search The Failure of Middleware, Part 6: Link Resolvers The Failure of Middleware, Part 7: OAI and Google Scholar Affording the Rock-N-Roll LifestyleOPAC Laments OPAC Laments CatalogablogOPAC iPod OPAChydermThe cost of switching LibDevILS Architecture: Open vs Turnkey The OPAC: In What Age? Lorcan Dempsey’s weblogLifting out the catalog discovery experience Thinking about the catalog A service-able catalogue Discover, locate, … vertical and horizontal integration LibraryCrunchOPAC Wishlist, Continued OPAC Wishlist, more Where’s MY OPAC browser? Walt at randomWhat’s a known item? TechEssence.InfoForcing Users to Learn the Catalog - by Thomas Dowling Rethink the role of the library catalog - by Eric Lease Morgan Pegasus LibrarianEmpathy, But Not Sympathy for Innovative Changing Nature of the Catalog Search Motivation and the Expert/Novice One Big LibraryOn the Clarifying of a Few Things The Problem with the ILS Bill of Rights My postsThe OPAC Strikes Back Additional Thoughts on the OPAC The OPAC Debate Continues . . . Are We Really Ready to Say Goodbye to the Sucky OPAC? The Main Reason I Think OPACs are a Problem The Motivation Behind the Search The User Isn’t Broken - But Neither is the Library Library Users & the Catalog Updates:7/6/2006 - I added some additional blog posts to the list and started to annotate the entries.7/7/2006 - I continued annotating some entries. I changed the formatting of the post to (I hope) make the post easier to read (using bold for blog names and bullets for posts). [...]<!--%kramer-ref-post%--> Kramer auto Pingback[...] July 11, 2206 – I am no longer updating this list of OPAC Blog posts on this site. For the most recent version of this post, please visit the OPAC Blog Posts – A List via WordPress. It has become too difficult to update the list in both places.The latest assignment for my summer class is a 10-15 page paper about one cataloging related subject that we choose from a list of 15 suggested topics (due on July 17th). Although I haven’t made my final choice about the theme of the paper, many of the suggestions on the professor’s list deal with the automated library catalog and the user’s experience of searching. I’m interested in using some of the recent blog discussions about the OPAC/library catalog/ILS as part of my paper. As such, I’ve started putting together a list of relevant blog posts. This list is a work in progress. I intend to update the list – and start annotating it as part of my research. LibrarianInBlack Karen and the Sucky OPAC – The LibrarianInBlack comments on Karen Schneider’s “How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It),” The LIB comments that ” This relevancy ranking issue is one of those changes I’d like to see happen. I agree with Karen that this is something that librarians should be demanding…not simply wishing for.” Library website goals – The LIB agrees about the importance of single sign on (which isn’t something that we are even close to at my small library either!!) and references John Blyberg’s post Library 2.0 websites: Where to begin? Family Man Librarian Library online catalogs and relevancy ranking[updated] – A post in which the Family Man Librarian disagrees with Karen Schneiders’ post How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It). The FML takes issue with Karen’s points that most online catalogs don’t have relevance ranking and that ILS vendors are wholly to blame for this lack of relevance ranking. FML contends that we need to “look at both sides of the issue and especially do not be so quick to lay blame without truly understanding the reality of what vendors provide and what they do.” Blyberg.net 2006: the year of the phoenix OPAC? – In this post, John Blyberg points to several significant developments in OPACs: NCSU’s new online catalog, Casey Bisson’s WordPress OPAC project, Ed Vielmetti’s third-party library apps with RSS feeds and Dave Pattern’s work with a new patron-oriented presentation layer to the OPAC. Blyberg’s own experiences also lead him to conclude that the public is “hungry” for social additives to the catalog. Blyberg writes that 2006 “is shaping up to be the year a new OPAC vision is created.” ILS Customer Bill of Rights – John Blyberg details “four simple, but fundamental” needs from ILS vendors: 1) Open, read-only, direct access to the database, 2)A full-blown, W3C standards-based API to all read-write functions, 3)The option to run the ILS on hardware of our choice, on servers that we administer and 4) High security standards. Library 2.0 websites: Where to begin? – John suggests five directives to help redesign library web sites: social software, open-source software, single sign-on, open standards and an integrated OPAC. Why bother: the impact of social OPACs – Blyberg makes is clear that he does not “think we are doomed if we choose not to implement social software in our OPAC.” He contends that by adding social software and/or applications we can create a feeling of community within our OPACs. One key point is that “findability is not the goal, but the activity and the experience which is why I say that OPACs have the potential to be fascinating places to visit and browse.” OPACs in the frying pan, Vendors in the fires – A round up of blog posts about OPACs, ILS and vendors for early June 2006. A Wandering Eyre Actual Reasons Why My OPAC Sucks – Jane offers 16 actual reasons why her OPAC sucks in response to an actual comment. OPACS (everyone together now) SUCK – Jane reflects about the the concepts of tracking and finding in relation to the OPAC and about how they are different. She suggests that these two concepts intersect at the point where we need to locate an item at a specific moment in time and that this is a good starting point for the conversation about how to make things easier to find. We Are Broken, Not Them – A response to Karen Schneider’s post THE USER IS NOT BROKEN: A MEME MASQUERDING AS A MANIFESTO in which Jane adds several of her own points to Karen’s. ALA TechSource From Swine to Divine: NCSU Unveils New Online Catalog – by Teresa Koltzenburg The Revolution Will be Folksonomied – by Karen G. Schneider Measuring My First CIL – by Tom Peters How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It) – by Karen G. Schneider How OPACs Suck, Part 2: The Checklist of Shame – by Karen G. Schneider How OPACs Suck, Part 3: The Big Picture – by Karen G. Scheider Maison Bisson …And Then You Realize You Wasted Your Life Raging Arguments About The Future of the ILS Presentation: Designing an OPAC for Web 2.0 WPopac: An OPAC 2.0 Testbed WPopac Gets Googled Free Markets, Bad Products, Slow Change Rates Library Garden Catching Up Disruptive Library Technology Jester Is the Writing on the Wall for the Integrated Library System? “Is the Writing on the Wall?” – Take 2 Lis.dom dream of the children’s materials OPAC across the great divide What I Learned TodayState of Our ILS Touched a Nerve Librarian.netOPAC Manifesto my tag cloud and forcing an OPAC solution Science Library Paddear OPAC: change or die full text is coming . . . OPAC is going? academic libraries dislocated by technology Confessions of a Science LibrarianYour ignorance will not protect you ex librisgetting stuff into the opac Swem Review of TechnologyThe Catalog Under Scrutiny – Part 1, a look at the OPAC The Catalog Under Scrutiny – Part 2, Open Source and the ILS Librarian 1.5Talis white paper on Library 2.0 RFID, books and Library 2.0 – The Missing Link? ebyblogGoal Based Information Retrieval Experiences The Flexible OPAC Plenty of Suckage to Go Around This Old Library Spamming Google with the OPAC Library Laws are meant to be brokenMore reasons OPACs suck And so begins the law library OPAC discussion Participation LiteracyLibrary 2.0 LawLibTechHow OPACs Suck, Parts 1, 2 & 3 Enhancing Library Catalogs with Tags Crossed WiresWhat Web Users Hate Part 1: Search and Browse What Web Users Hate Part 2: Scanning the Site What Web Users Hate Part 3: Reading Library clipsOPAC in a blog and library 2.0 SLE feeds for Library OPACs Librarian in the MiddleTEACHING OPAC SKILLS The Goblin in the LibrarySlouching Towards OPAC 2.0 PanlibusPity the poor OPAC? Where is the edge of the OPAC? The OPAC is not an end in itself ACRLogMore on XC from David Lindahl Free Range LibrarianThe user is not broken: a meme masquerading as a manifesto Information Wants to Be FreeCasey Bisson Speaks! We should all listen. Dumb down the catalog? Yes, lets! The Failure of Middleware, Part 1: What’s the problem? The Failure of Middleware, Part 2: Who are our users? The Failure of Middleware, Part 3: How do we measure up? The Failure of Middleware, Part 4: What Works? The Failure of Middleware, Part 5: The Unintegrated Library System & Federated Search The Failure of Middleware, Part 6: Link Resolvers The Failure of Middleware, Part 7: OAI and Google Scholar Affording the Rock-N-Roll LifestyleOPAC Laments OPAC Laments CatalogablogOPAC iPod OPAChydermThe cost of switching LibDevILS Architecture: Open vs Turnkey The OPAC: In What Age? Lorcan Dempsey’s weblogLifting out the catalog discovery experience Thinking about the catalog A service-able catalogue Discover, locate, … vertical and horizontal integration LibraryCrunchOPAC Wishlist, Continued OPAC Wishlist, more Where’s MY OPAC browser? Walt at randomWhat’s a known item? TechEssence.InfoForcing Users to Learn the Catalog – by Thomas Dowling Rethink the role of the library catalog – by Eric Lease Morgan Pegasus LibrarianEmpathy, But Not Sympathy for Innovative Changing Nature of the Catalog Search Motivation and the Expert/Novice One Big LibraryOn the Clarifying of a Few Things The Problem with the ILS Bill of Rights My postsThe OPAC Strikes Back Additional Thoughts on the OPAC The OPAC Debate Continues . . . Are We Really Ready to Say Goodbye to the Sucky OPAC? The Main Reason I Think OPACs are a Problem The Motivation Behind the Search The User Isn’t Broken – But Neither is the Library Library Users & the Catalog Updates:7/6/2006 – I added some additional blog posts to the list and started to annotate the entries.7/7/2006 – I continued annotating some entries. I changed the formatting of the post to (I hope) make the post easier to read (using bold for blog names and bullets for posts). [...]

]]> By: blyberg.net » OPACs in the frying pan, Vendors in the firehttp://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/comment-page-1/#comment-3683 blyberg.net » OPACs in the frying pan, Vendors in the fire Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:22:17 +0000 http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/#comment-3683 [...] June 13 - Is the Writing on the Wall for the Integrated Library System? - OhioLINK’s Peter Murray muses on the future of the ILS and the OPAC. This is a good post that I’d recommend, even though I disagree with some of it. Murray has drawn from the newly formed Next Generation OPACs mailing list to discuss the relevancy of the OPAC in today’s library. He believes that the OPAC is barely utilized–I suppose he believes that to be the case in most libraries. He also seems to suggest that the “ILS/OPAC” (Which I take to mean the ILS with OPAC) should be considered an asset management system. In a way he’s correct, but fundamentally, the ILS is much more than that. The ILS is a suite of applications that, hopefully, facilitate everything from the art of cataloging (not inventorying) to finding material and information. I also do not see any evidence to support his claim that patrons do not use the OPAC. He writes, “I would challenge the notion that the OPAC is a ‘useful tool’ — if it was, our patrons would still be using it. As it is, anecdotal evidence suggest that the OPAC is the last thing they would choose to use.” We’ve got logs that prove that the OPAC is used heavily in our organization–it always has been. Perhaps the situation is different in academia where databases rule the roost, but the OPAC is the primary search tool for the public library patron, both in our buildings and from home. In many ways, the OPAC represents our double-doors–if there were no OPAC, we could not conduct business, and it’s very much alive. Where I do agree with him is in his remarks about libraries getting themselves in to trouble, though it’s not because we listened to ourselves as he suggests, but because there has never been a change-agent-inducing catalyst to light a fire under our collective behinds. In fact, the libraries who have been successful at transitioning into this “2.0 era” have largely been lucky in that they simply were in possession of the right people at the right time. The combination of vision, passion, and expertise is what makes a 600,000-ton tanker full of institutional inertia change course–not software suites. [...] [...] June 13 – Is the Writing on the Wall for the Integrated Library System? – OhioLINK’s Peter Murray muses on the future of the ILS and the OPAC. This is a good post that I’d recommend, even though I disagree with some of it. Murray has drawn from the newly formed Next Generation OPACs mailing list to discuss the relevancy of the OPAC in today’s library. He believes that the OPAC is barely utilized–I suppose he believes that to be the case in most libraries. He also seems to suggest that the “ILS/OPAC” (Which I take to mean the ILS with OPAC) should be considered an asset management system. In a way he’s correct, but fundamentally, the ILS is much more than that. The ILS is a suite of applications that, hopefully, facilitate everything from the art of cataloging (not inventorying) to finding material and information. I also do not see any evidence to support his claim that patrons do not use the OPAC. He writes, “I would challenge the notion that the OPAC is a ‘useful tool’ — if it was, our patrons would still be using it. As it is, anecdotal evidence suggest that the OPAC is the last thing they would choose to use.” We’ve got logs that prove that the OPAC is used heavily in our organization–it always has been. Perhaps the situation is different in academia where databases rule the roost, but the OPAC is the primary search tool for the public library patron, both in our buildings and from home. In many ways, the OPAC represents our double-doors–if there were no OPAC, we could not conduct business, and it’s very much alive. Where I do agree with him is in his remarks about libraries getting themselves in to trouble, though it’s not because we listened to ourselves as he suggests, but because there has never been a change-agent-inducing catalyst to light a fire under our collective behinds. In fact, the libraries who have been successful at transitioning into this “2.0 era” have largely been lucky in that they simply were in possession of the right people at the right time. The combination of vision, passion, and expertise is what makes a 600,000-ton tanker full of institutional inertia change course–not software suites. [...]

]]> By: Life as I Know It » Blog Archive » The OPAC Debate Continues. . .http://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/comment-page-1/#comment-641 Life as I Know It » Blog Archive » The OPAC Debate Continues. . . Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:57:27 +0000 http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/#comment-641 [...] As for OPACs, John's summation of Peter Murray's Is the Writing on the Wall for the Integrated Library System? got me thinking about several things. Like John, I agree with Peter that the "ILS/OPAC" is an an asset management system tool - one which the library needs in order to operate. I would also agree that OPACs do get used - and add that this is the case in academic libraries as well. Students do tend to gravitate towards database aggregators to find full-text articles first, but they do use OPACs to search for materials with remarkable frequency (remarkable given that recent debates often give the impression that OPACs are unusable). In the library where I work, we could not survive without our OPAC (sucky or not). This does make the OPAC a useful tool as an interface into our ILS. It may not be the best interface and it may not even be the right solution to meet the needs of our users, but right now it is really the only window into the ILS that we have. [...] [...] As for OPACs, John's summation of Peter Murray's Is the Writing on the Wall for the Integrated Library System? got me thinking about several things. Like John, I agree with Peter that the "ILS/OPAC" is an an asset management system tool – one which the library needs in order to operate. I would also agree that OPACs do get used – and add that this is the case in academic libraries as well. Students do tend to gravitate towards database aggregators to find full-text articles first, but they do use OPACs to search for materials with remarkable frequency (remarkable given that recent debates often give the impression that OPACs are unusable). In the library where I work, we could not survive without our OPAC (sucky or not). This does make the OPAC a useful tool as an interface into our ILS. It may not be the best interface and it may not even be the right solution to meet the needs of our users, but right now it is really the only window into the ILS that we have. [...]

]]> By: the jesterhttp://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/comment-page-1/#comment-449 the jester Thu, 15 Jun 2006 02:23:39 +0000 http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/#comment-449 Walt --Good points all around. I've tried to address them in a <a href="http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils-2/" rel="nofollow">follow up post</a>. Walt –

Good points all around. I’ve tried to address them in a follow up post.

]]> By: Nicole Engardhttp://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/comment-page-1/#comment-433 Nicole Engard Wed, 14 Jun 2006 17:03:15 +0000 http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/#comment-433 I have to agree - this discussion needs to be about <i>how</i> people are using the catalog - and how we can make it easier for them to do so. If - in fact - they aren't using it - why is that and how can we change it.I know from our statistics that people <i>are</i> using the catalog - but what I don't know for sure is if they're finding what they need (without too much hassle) - that's where we need to focus our attention.Library catalogs are necessary and aren't going anywhere - and we shouldn't be trying to replace them - but I do feel that we need to scrap the exisiting systems and start from scratch focusing on the user #1 and then the 4 points mentioned above. I have to agree – this discussion needs to be about how people are using the catalog – and how we can make it easier for them to do so. If – in fact – they aren’t using it – why is that and how can we change it.

I know from our statistics that people are using the catalog – but what I don’t know for sure is if they’re finding what they need (without too much hassle) – that’s where we need to focus our attention.

Library catalogs are necessary and aren’t going anywhere – and we shouldn’t be trying to replace them – but I do feel that we need to scrap the exisiting systems and start from scratch focusing on the user #1 and then the 4 points mentioned above.

]]> By: walt crawfordhttp://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/comment-page-1/#comment-432 walt crawford Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:49:33 +0000 http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/#comment-432 While I probably agree with much/most of what you're saying, I find it interesting that you seem to accept "anecdotal evidence" as sufficient to say OPACS aren't being used anymore. At the same time, you dismiss asking reference librarians how they *see* patrons using OPACs as "listening to ourselves."So anecdotal "evidence" is sufficient to prove a negative, but actual evidence is inappropriate to prove a positive? A tough way to form a discussion.I frankly find it unbelievable that OPACs aren't being used. Of course they are.Are they being used as often or in the ways librarians might like them to be? Different issue.Are they being used--to find known items, to search for titles by a known author, etc, etc.? I bet libraries could give you cold hard evidence that, in aggregate, they're used at least hundreds of thousands of times a day. While I probably agree with much/most of what you’re saying, I find it interesting that you seem to accept “anecdotal evidence” as sufficient to say OPACS aren’t being used anymore. At the same time, you dismiss asking reference librarians how they *see* patrons using OPACs as “listening to ourselves.”

So anecdotal “evidence” is sufficient to prove a negative, but actual evidence is inappropriate to prove a positive? A tough way to form a discussion.

I frankly find it unbelievable that OPACs aren’t being used. Of course they are.

Are they being used as often or in the ways librarians might like them to be? Different issue.

Are they being used–to find known items, to search for titles by a known author, etc, etc.? I bet libraries could give you cold hard evidence that, in aggregate, they’re used at least hundreds of thousands of times a day.

]]> By: What I Learned Today… » Blog Archive » The Writing on the Wallhttp://dltj.org/article/dis-ils/comment-page-1/#comment-431 What I Learned Today… » Blog Archive » The Writing on the Wall Wed, 14 Jun 2006 12:06:38 +0000 http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/#comment-431 [...] Over at Disruptive Library Technology Jester there is a post about the future of the ILS. You all know where I stand on the issue - and Peter Murray links right to my opinions from his post. [...] [...] Over at Disruptive Library Technology Jester there is a post about the future of the ILS. You all know where I stand on the issue – and Peter Murray links right to my opinions from his post. [...]

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