[11903] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: All is not golden: Evaluation of Library Automation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Graham, RUL)
Tue Jan 6 20:25:50 1998
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 15:49:13 -0600
From: "Peter Graham, RUL" <psgraham@rci.rutgers.edu>
In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 05 Jan 1998 14:25:03 -0600
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: "Peter Graham, RUL" <psgraham@rci.rutgers.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
From: Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries
Thom Gillespie writes, i.a.,
>The major problems at this particular library is an inability to get their
CD-ROMS up in a timely fashion, integrating the web with the opac, keeping
NT from crashing on a regular basis, and getting the printers to work at
local stations. The type of service which would get folks in private
industry canned but public libraries are civil service so the problem of
evaluation is compounded.<
The grass is always greener elsewhere. I bet private industry has money to
support current technology rather than a mix of 4 generations of machines;
has sufficient staff to do the work; doesn't try to network CD-ROMs all over
the place and only uses 1 or 2 types in any case (e.g. to support their parts
inventory); and has spent a fortune on networking so that printers will
indeed work properly. And this litany of woes is one we see in the trade
press as well even for our better off brethren in the privates.
And wait until you hear what the technology folks have to say about the weird
way books are cataloged and put on the shelf. How does anyone ever find
anything in that place?
Thom's tale of woe sounds absolutely typical and I would on that evidence
alone draw absolutely no conclusions about the quality of the technical
support or its administration. --pg
NEW ZIP: Peter Graham psgraham@rci.rutgers.edu Rutgers University Libraries
169 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1163 phone: (732)445-5908
fax (732)445-5888 <URL:http://aultnis.rutgers.edu/pghome.html>
