-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Serials List database  Clarification/correction --
DavidGoodman
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 10:48:27 -0700
From: Dan Lester <dan@riverofdata.com>
Reply-To: Dan Lester <dan@riverofdata.com>
Organization: RiverOfData.com

Well, this is taking a different direction, so I'll comment once more,
and presumably the final time.

Monday, December 17, 2001, 9:47:37 AM, you wrote:
> Subject: Re: Serials List database  Clarification/correction -- Dan
> Lester
> Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 11:39:49 -0500
> From: David Goodman <dgoodman@princeton.edu>

> Whether or not the library should have a printed list should be decided
> by the needs and opinions of the users, not the management. The job of
> the library staff and management combined is to meet their needs if
> possible. "If possible," does not mean  "if convenient,"  and certainly
> not "if they agree with us."

I'll agree that user input is important.  However, in every library
organization I've ever worked in (seven state university libraries and
one public library) there is no single or simple answer to what the
"needs and opinions of the users" are.  I'm sure that some users and
some staff would prefer a printed list.  Some would only want an
online list.  Still others would want both.

Of course we then can get into the difference between "wants" and
"needs", which I consider to be very different things.  (e.g. I WANT a
Porsche 944, my actual needs are more than adequately met by a 96
Honda).  And, as my personal example indicates, economics are always a
factor in a decision.  (e.g. some of our users would like us to be
open 24/7, but the economics permitting that will likely not happen in
my
lifetime, if ever)

And the real point is that when there is disagreement among users
and/or among staff, and when there are budgetary limitations (we've
been cut 3 percent already this year), someeone has to make the
decisions as to what will happen and how the money will be spent.

> I know my users need it because if they can't locate it they ask for it
> (and, yes, I've done surveys as well). It would be much easier not to
> prepare it, and if they didn't use it I would stop at once.

I have no idea of the needs and wants of your users, and am sure you
do.  However, my first question would be whether the users NEED the
list you have, or whether they simply WANT it because they've always
done it that way, it is the tool they know best, or even because it is
the only tool.  I've seen the same issues arise in staff and students
changing from a telnet implementation of a library catalog to a web
implementation.  Some will continue to work with the tool they know,
rather than switch to one they don't yet know.  It also arises in the
Pacific Northwest for users of LaserCat (a regional union catalog on
CDROM) who will have to change to WorldCat.  Some have made the change
quickly and easily.  Others will hang onto the CDROMs until the bitter
end.

NOTE:  No one should infer any criticism of any parties involved in
the examples described above.  We all have our own quirks, blindspots,
desires, habits, customs, areas of comfort, and so forth.  It is
always a problem to accommodate all of those wishes and needs in any
environment.

> I see the
> same need and use in many other science libraries; I know of one very
> technological library that acts ashamed of producing it and hides it in
> a back corner--but the users find it. I do admit I've never been at
> Boise. I wonder if their computer system ever fails.

I don't see any shame in having a printed list.  In the environment I
know best, the issues will be economic, at least in part because of
quirks in the local integrated library system (i.e., labor cost and
availability).  Secondarily, there are issues of cost of duplicating
the resulting printed list.  I'm sure there will be others.  However,
that will be an internal staff and management discussion, and just as
you've made your decisions, those in other places will make their own.
What is right in one place might be wrong in another.

As to computer failure, that has not been an issue.  We have much more
frequently had power failures than computer failures.  In those cases,
neither a computer database nor a printed list is of any use.  Yes,
computers can fail, but they're actually the most stable part of the
systems in most situations.

Happy holidays,

dan

--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan@RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!