[Sigia-l] IA and medium

[Louis Rosenfeld]

On 5/13/02 1:34 PM, "Stewart, Erin [NEA]" <ErStewart at nea.org> wrote:

> Librarians working in brick-and-mortar are different from IAs that work in
> digital in at least these four relevant ways:  (1) librarians select, manage,
> and weed content, (2) librarians research and resolve user needs in a
> face-to-face real-time environment, (3) librarians train users during the
> process of "finding", and (4) librarians develop and implement programmatic
> materials and events based on content and user demand.
[stuff snipped]


Hmm.  I'd have to disagree with #1 above.  In the Web medium, making content
findable and deciding whether to include it or not are part of a single
spectrum, and are often quite intertwined.  Then again, I'm someone who sees
IA and content management very much as two sides of the same coin.

#3 is a tough one.  Librarians are intermediaries who help connect users
(patrons) and content.  Information architects are trying to build aspects
of that mediation into architectures.  So information architects can learn
from and model the approaches librarians utilize when helping users.

#2 is sort of like #3:  IAs may not be intermediaries operating in
real-time, but still address user needs through user research methods.

IMHO, lots of similarities.  Thanks for an interesting thread!

cheers



Louis Rosenfeld
www.louisrosenfeld.com
information architecture consulting