From: fr@compu.com (Fred Rump from home)
Subject: Re: Library bashing??
Organization: CompuData Inc.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 21:38:53 GMT

fdavison@SFSUVAX1.SFSU.EDU (Frieda Davison) writes:

>Well, thought I would get into this fray since SEVERAL of the messages on
>the net this morning were bashing libraries.  Instead of off the hand
>bashing, how about asking some of us librarians online why things are the
>way they are and if and how they could be changed. 

Frieda, I think you may feel unduly attacked somehow. I think you must admit 
that there are libraries and there are libraries. It all depends upon people.

Some people simply go thru the motions as anything out of the ordinary 
represents work. The simplest thing is never to rock the boat, be good, put 
up with the system and get paid every Friday. These people may have forgotten 
why they go to work every day. That is how it is and we run into this type of 
thing. Luckily it is not pervasive thruout the system just yet.

>All libraries are not and many cannot be (by boards of trustees, charter,
>etc. regulations)interconnected and able to cooperate.

This should be a problem to somebody. Too often it is not.

> Academic libraries
>exist (as every mission statement will tell you) for the primary clientele
>which is usually defined as their students and faculty (some will include
>staff, but many don't).

Since tuition is but a small part of the 'cost' of learning, I think that all 
avenues should be opened to provide the facilities all of us pay for in one 
way or another for the entire public good. This should not be to the detriment 
of students obviously, but how many books have never been touched by a student 
and yet can never be used by anyone else either. Such is the waste of human 
knowledge. 


>  Public libraries typically exist for the clientele
>of the "community", depending on how they define community.  Some have a
>narrow definition (town, county, etc -- outsiders pay a use fee) and others
> have a very broad definition.  Most public and academic libraries
>are usually funded in at least three ways (federal, state, and county or
>city). Because they accept funding from all three, all three sets of
>regulations must be adhered to -- an there are many.

Surely there are too many. That is the problem in a nutshell. As to public 
libraries - they are to serve the community, true. By involving themselves in 
helping each other serve their communities better, they are doing what they 
should be doing.  They have to learn to cooperate lest they stay islands to
themselves.


>Regarding the "comments" about increases -- yes, for libraries, journals
>increase their price anywhere from 8 to 25% EACH YEAR. And NO, libraries
>do NOT get a break on pricing.  In fact, we pay more.  Publishers have
>a policy called "tiered pricing".

This is something new to me. Are you letting the publishers get away with 
anything they ask for? Perhaps if the libraries got together and said 'we will 
no longer buy your stuff under condition x' they would get the message. 


>What can you do about it?
>* Stop bashing and ask your local librarian (public, academic, etc.) how you
>can help.

Bashing is your term. I think we are mainly stating facts which may not sound 
sweet to a librarian's ears. Teacher's react similarly when speaking of the 
dismal results they produce. It's always more money that will solve the 
problem.

>* Join a Friends of the Library group.
>* Volunteer time at the library -- find out what "those people behind
>the scenes" really do.  Final exams ended last week here at our campus --
>this week we anticipate the return of 20,000 books -- someone has to shelve
>them.

That is a peculiar problem that schools have - lots of local borrowers.


>* Write your Congresspersons.
>* Write your local TV news casters and get them to do a library spot.
>* Write your local newspaper editors.

About what? I still don't quite know the problem. I'm sure more money will 
only create the request for more money. It is not that simple.



>* Attend town council (or equivalent) meetings voicing your concerns (but
>make sure you have your facts straight first -- talk with the librarians --
>NOT the people at the desks.  ASK for the Head Librarian, Chief Librarian,
>University Librarian, Library Director, or "for who is in charge of the
>library").

Now here is what I can do after I have my problems in hand. I guess 
everything starts at your front door.  I wonder if the county library director
would even speak to me? I mean I have written to the editor about the small 
fortune that our library spent for some ridiculous computer system. I mean the 
kind of stuff we sell in the business world for 1/3 the cost. They may not 
like me very much as surely some questions were asked as to why.


>Do not for one minute believe that the people who work in the library are
>any less frustrated with "the system" than you are.  We must live with it
>hour to hour, day to day.  You "encounter" it. 

This very much reminds me of the bankrupt city of Philadelphia across the
river where my business is. A recent anonymous survey of the city employees 
showed that they are as frustrated by inefficiency as the average citizen who
pays for it.  Strangely, it was always the boss, the other department, the
'system' that was at fault.  Nobody in the system had anything to do with it.

In the meantime, service has deteriorated to nothing and the tax base has
quietly and mysteriously moved to the suburbs where the systems are not quite 
as inefficient yet. Unions have a lot to do with the problem but they only 
react to the ever increasing demands of their members - those in the system 
who complain about it.

>Putting information on
>computers and CD's is a great idea but many producers recognize that it is
>a limited customer base and will have nothing to do with endeavors of this
>type. 

Each library should be a customer to begin with. Costs can come down close to 
a buck for 600 million characters of storage. It cost me $69 to buy the entire 
NT development system with docs and all.  It would cost me $369 to buy the
printed documentation so that I may set it on a huge shelf.  The disc may have
cost MS a couple dollars to reproduce since they only made about 30,000 but I
hold it in my hands and can search for anything I want electronically.

Similar savings could be garnered about any new volume that requires search 
instead of simple reading like a novel. Libraries should be able to save 
fortunes if they only got together and wanted to. There is nothing magical to 
the process but we have those who need to protect the way things have always 
been in charge. Those on the inside need to inform their superiors as to the 
new world.


>The end product is WONDERFUL, but it is VERY EXPENSIVE to get it
>computerized.

Hey, any local library could by an imaging system for their particular local 
records. No big deal. They could then purchase a CD-ROM writer for about $7K 
and crank out copies from the original. It is only expensive if you make it 
so.  Now, if they got together, think how cheaply they could do things.



>I used to work for Columbia University and because it is SO
>OLD and computers are so relatively young, we estimated that in 1989 we had
>only about 20% of our materials accessible (findable, not readable) online.
>It costs an average of $2 to $10 just to get one item accessible online.

Why? Why does it take an average of $6 to enter a book into a computer? Is it 
because they had huge IBM computers to feed instead of a cheap UNIX box of
some sort? Let us always remember that it is not cost that hinders us from 
doing things but rather it is the failure of finding a better way.


>That sounds cheap, but when you multiple it by 6 million items (like Columbia
>owns) or Harvard or any of the big research libraries, there is never enough
>money, staff or computer space to do it. 

Yet some people can do it with very little money. Computer space is cheap. 
Staff could be students in need of a few bucks off on the tuition. Money is 
never really the problem if it is used wisely. If you try to throw it at the 
problem it will never be enough.  I would suspect that the money that Harvard
and Columbia waste each year on frivolities would more than cover the cost of
cataloging their libraries.  There are probably few institutions on earth that
are less efficient than government and the educational establishment.  Even a
little improvement in either area could do wonders to results.

>At Columbia we even had "hand
>written" catalog cards in the public card catalog -- produced way before
>the typewriter even.  Again, there are very few funding avenues for bringing
>this type of information online.

Perhaps a better managed organization would have said: 'Hey, since we can't 
use this information let's give it to a library who can'. But instead they 
chose to sit on it till kingdom come.  My point about having lost focus
indeed.

>Later (when I have cooled off!) I will try to get some information online
>about some other questions that were on the net this morning.

I don't think you need to carry the entire burden on your own head. Take your 
own advice and work from within. Maybe you can make a little change somewhere 
sometime.  Some of us actually have the privilege of being able to affect
change, for the betterment of mankind, in our lives - very few of us.

Fred

PS Sorry for the length



-- 
W. Fred Rump 	office:	   fred@COMPU.COM     'mans feet have grown/so big 
26 Warren St.   home: fred@icdi10.compu.com  that he/forgets his littleness'
Beverly, NJ. 08010                          		Don Marquis 
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