I think I’ve been avoiding commenting on this issue for weeks because it hits so close to home. First I read it in BiblioAcid, then Jenny Levine picked it up, then Richard Ackerman picked it up at the Science Library Pad: library catalogs are broken, and there’s no amount of adding pictures or fiddling with colors that will fix them.
I nibbled at the edges of this in my IUG conference presentation, but I didn’t say it as well or as clearly as Roy Tennant did in his widely quoted April 15 Library Journal column:
Recently I viewed a library catalog redesign before it went public. This was the first major change in many years, and it turned out to be quite an improvement to the look and feel of the system. But despite this, it still sucks. Badly.
I don’t know how much time was spent on this cosmetic facelift, but until the deeper problems that plague this system are addressed, users will remain poorly served. Librarians appear to be afflicted with a type of myopia. We see only minor, easy-to-make corrections instead of changes that will truly affect the user experience. We ask our vendors to tweak this or that to make our lives easier, while the users are left to founder on an interface that only a librarian could love.
Thing is, we’re about to go live with our own much updated OPAC, the first redesign in many years, and Roy’s points are right on. I’ve had complaints about the limitations of our OPAC and the reticence of the vendor to support customers who are seeking to address the problems identified by Roy and others, but now I find it nearly impossible to continue “polishing the turd.”
Little things always crop up just when you think you’re done with a project, but increasingly I want to say: put this in perspective, we’ve got to cut the line on this and go live with what we’ve got now so we can invest our time into fixing the real problems. Our students are using Google not because they’re dumb or lazy, but because we are. The limitations of the OPAC and our inability to think beyond what the vendor offers us is leading to a narcissism of small differences where we argue about where to put the cover art for an item in an attempt to make it look like Amazon, but forget that we need to make it work as well as Amazon or Google.
Technorati Tags: conference, iug, jenny levine, library catalog, library, library journal, opac, richard ackerman, roy tennant, science library, search box, server applications, presentation
Related:
Posted May 24, 2005, by Casey
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information. Tags: conference, iug, jenny levine, library, library catalog, library journal, opac, presentation, richard ackerman, roy tennant, science library, search box, server applications.
2 Comments
Comments RSS
TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
User contributed tags for this post:
wasted life (79) - there comes a point in your life (42) - there comes a point in your life when you realize (36) - There comes a point in your life when you realize who m (25) - there comes a time in your life when you realize (24) - worldsex xom (22) - www worldsex xom (21) - wasted your life (20) - you wasted your life (17) - conference (16) - library (15) - WWW SEX LIFE COM (13) - 158721 (12) - A wasted life (12) - there comes a time in your life (12) - www.worldsex.xom (11) - time wasted is life wasted (11) - how much of your life have you wasted? (10) - there comes a point in life (10) - roy tennant (10) - theres a point in your life when you realize (9) - there comes a point in life when (9) - theres a point in your life (9) - richard ackerman (8) - www 89 xom (8) - worldsex (8) - and then you realize (8) - then i realize (7) - time passing quote (7) - mss (7) - then you realize (7) - there comes a point in your life when you realize who r (7) - there comes a time in your life when you realise (6) - Worldsex Pictures (6) - 89.xom (6) - There comes a time in your life when (6) - there comes a time in your life when you realise who ma (6) - There comes a point in your life when you (6) - pink world com (6) - there comes a time when you realize who matters (5) - time wasted in life (5) - oldworldsex (5) - There comes a time in your life when you realize who ma (5) - There comes a time in life when you realize (5) - roy tennant controversy (5) - are you wasted (4) - roy tennant video (4) - 89 xom (4) - there comes a point in your life when you realise who m (4) - who is the author of there comes a point in your life when u realize who matters who never did (4) - and then i realize all i need is you in my life (4) - there comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did, who (3) - there is a point in your life when you realize (3) - there comes a point in life when you realize (3) - there comes a point in your life where you realize who (3) - theres a point in your life when you realize who matter (3) - there comes a point in your life when (3) - there comes a point when you realize (3) - www sex life (3) - worldsex.xom (3) - there comes a time realize matters (3) - sex for life com (3) - there comes a point in life when you realize who (3) - There comes a point in your life when you realize who really matters, who never did, and who always will. (3) - theres a time in your life when you realize (3) - worldsex com (3) - There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters (3) - there is a point in your life when you (3) - There comes a time in your life when you realize who wi (3) - And then i realize (3) - time in your life you realize (3) - There comes a time in your life when you (3) - you know that point in your life when you realize (3) - THERE COMES a point in your life when you realize quote (2) - search box (2) - library opac and redesign (2) - www sex for life com (2) - when you realize you wasted your life (2) - when you think you have wasted your life (2) - wasted for life (2) - There comes a point in your life when you realize who i (2) - theres a time in your life when you realize who matters (2) - at some point you realize what matter what never did quote (2) - I think you realized (2) - quote there comes a point in life (2) - there comes a time in your life when you realize who really matter who never did and who always will quote (2) - there comes a point in your life when you realise (2) - wated life (2) - there always comes a point in life when you realize quote (2) - there comes a time when you realise (2) - then you what is life (2) - there comes a time when you find out who really matters and who never did (2) - there comes a time in your life where you (2) - Theres a time in your life when you realise Who matters (2) - there comes a point in your life when you realize who a (2) - there's a point in your life when you realize (2) - there comes a point in your life where (2) - There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, (2) - there comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did (2) - there comes a point in your life when you realize, who truly matters, who never did, and who always will. (2) - There comes a point in your life quote (2) - there comes a point in your life when you realize poem (2) - there comes a point in you life when you realize who ma (2) - There comes a point and time in life where you will realize its difficulties. (2) - iug (2) - Then you realize what you got (2) - realize you wasted (2) - the limitations of the OPAC narcissism of small differe (2) - library catalog (2) - there comes a point in your (2) - There comes a point in life when you realize who really (2) - there comes a time in your life when you realize who (2) - there comes a point in your life when you relaize (2) - there is a time in your life (2) - there comes a point in your like when you realize who really matters, who never did, and who always will - (2) - all (2) - there comes a point in your life when you realize who matters who never did (2) - WASTED YOUR (2) - at some point you realize who really matters (2) - www.oldworldsex (2) - What to do when you realize your life is over (2) - theres a point in your life when (2) - nuclear test vedio (2) - how to know you wasted your life (2) - there comes a point in your life when you realise who matters to you poems (2) - and you wasted it (2) - vedio life (2) - realize who really and who never did (2) - when you have wasted your life (2) - fix your wasted life (2) - wasted 20 years of your life (2) - comes to a point (2) - there comes a point in life when you realize who matter (2) - wasted 5 years of life (2) - author there comes a point in your life when you realize who matters who never did who always will (2) - There comes a time in your life when you have to realiz (2) - there comes a time in your life when you realise what matters (2) - you wasted life (2) - What a wasted life (2) - how much of your life do you wasted sleeping (2) - there comes a time in your life when you realize who re (2) - what is your realize in your life (2) - you wasted your life com (2) - there's a point in your life (2) - have you wasted your life (2) - there comes a point in you life when you realize who matters (2) - what is a wasted life (2) - at a point in life you realise (2) - There Comes a Point Where you Realize (2) - narcissist wasted life (2) -
[...] …And Then You Realize You Wasted Your Life [...]
[...] little more than two years after I realized how (really) bad the problem was and about 18 months after I prototyped my solution, our new library website, catalog, and [...]