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After Losing Users in Catalogs, Libraries Find Better Search Software

September 29, 2009 - 1:34pm — Blake

The problem is that traditional online library catalogs don't tend to order search results by ranked relevance, and they can befuddle users with clunky interfaces. Bauer, a graduate student specializing in early American history, once had such a hard time finding materials that she titled a bibliography "Meager Fruits of an Ongoing Fight With Virgo."

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September 29, 2009 - 4:38pm — Chuck

damn thing

Does the Chronicle ever have any specifics in any article they run? It's like the People of the academic world.

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October 1, 2009 - 8:22pm — Anonymous

this was (part of) my complaint

And why I advocated the return to card catalogs :D

-- Ender, Duke_of_URL

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October 3, 2009 - 10:55pm — leeb

Card catalogs - no way!

Why would you even contemplate the idea of returning to card catalogs???? It's like considering returning to typewriters and liquid paper. This is the kind of thinking that library uses can't begin to understand. All they want is a user-friendly interface - what is so wrong with that? I know that recognising that OPACs are deficient and lacking in today's world is hard to do, but denial is not the answer. Why don't we just go back to living in a cave?

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October 3, 2009 - 11:39pm — StephenK

Card catalogs -- still doable

In retrospect, I guess there was good cause why we still maintained a card catalog in my last post as a librarian. A tsunami just hit there. Power is still sketchy but as long as there is light the cards are still accessible. Considering that the ILS was a union system with the server based in Pago Pago Harbor...I never did hear if they implemented off-island backups.
________________________
Stephen Michael Kellat, MSLS
PGP KeyID: DC5A625B

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