[Sigia-l] integrated catalogues?

[Skot Nelson]

On Oct-24-2005, at 9:47 PM, A.F. Cossham wrote:

> yes, all very interesting. Kind of misses the point in my example that
>
> * not all the resources are created by librarians
> * not all the resources are created FOR librarians
> * federated searching still doesn't work particularly well when you  
> are
> dealing with a range of resources created by different providers.

I would essentially agree with all these three statements.

> Skot Nelson wrote:
>
>> Is this a failing of technology, or of the sub-30 second attention
> snip...
> Well, realistic or not, that's the way it is. Telling me that you  
> don't get
> annoyed when your searches aren't returned in a matter of seconds?  
> I don't
> believe it!

Um. Ok.

I don't though. Not always. It depends on the context in which I'm  
searching.

I actually don't expect to be able to type "1981 Virago Crank Case  
capacity" into google and get a result in seconds. I expect to have  
to wade through thousands of results to find what I'm actually  
looking for, taking a tonne of time.

Other times, I expect to take more time searching but find exactly  
what I want on my first try.

So it depends on the context.


> Regardless of how academics have searched for resources (and please  
> note,
> I'm talking searching for resources across integrated catalogues, NOT
> academic research which is a much more complex process), everyone  
> wants
> quick results.

My bad, I suppose. Most cases where I've seen this type of search  
have been academic in nature. Typically library catalogues which  
provide access to external databases. The Vancouver Public Library's  
Electronic Resources are a good example.

> BTW, librarians have a long tradition of explaining to IT what they  
> want
> done, and having IT ignore them, so the librarians have to put up  
> with a
> less than ideal result. I don't know that librarians actually  
> design the
> systems they use ...

Substitute Librarin for either Sales, Marketing or Business Analsysts  
and this is the standard complaint of everybody with respect to IT,  
isn't it?