[12262] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Agent-based Cooperative Collection Development
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeannette Woodward)
Tue Jun 16 20:21:03 1998
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 18:19:50 -0500
From: Jeannette Woodward <aa2941@wayne.edu>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Gerry,
I'm fascinated with the idea of Agent-based Cooperative Collection
Development. Last year, I was involved in opening our new library and had
to spend what seemed to me an enormous amount of money with no time for
traditional collection development procedures. Too much time had already
been spent developing a profile with Blackwell North America and then poring
over 40,000 order slips. It turned out to be time very poorly spent.
Blackwell, in an attempt to sell as many books as possible, had placed every
book in every conceivable category. The computer program that assigned
categories was extremely primitive and seemed to make as many mistakes as
correct designations. What actually worked was asking Brodart to run the
orders of a dozen comparable libraries against one another. Ever since I've
been thinking about the problem of using the computer to enhance and exploit
human selection processes, not replace them.
I have the impression that your engine might eventually process the
institutional input (departmental homepages, etc) very effectively but after
my recent experience, my concern would be that intelligent human input
wouldn't be available on the other end (Amazon, Blackwell, etc)
Jeannette
Jeannette Woodward
Assistant Director
Adamany Undergraduate Library
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
E-mail: aa2941@wayne.edu
Voice: (313)577-4116 Fax: (313)577-5265)
