Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Thu, 3 Sep 1992 08:51:50 CDT
From:         Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      Jennings' Regrowing Article--Comments

2 Messages, 98 Lines
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From: CAROL FLAHERTY MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY
      <apbcf%trex.oscs.montana.edu@mtsunix1.BITNET>
Subject: RE: Comments on L.Jennings "Regrowing" article in PACS-L News

I was interested in Peter Graham's comment's on Jennings "Regrowing" article.
As a university science writer enamored by the information potential of
computers, it was interested to see that "repackaging information" may be one
of the evolving roles of librarians. That is where it all comes together: not
just finding the information but extracting it in a useful way--and if it has
to be passed along to others, formatted as either a computer or paper document
in such a way that the reader's eye is led easily to important information.
Others have spoken of the convergence of our disciplines--librarians, computer
specialists, writers and editors.
-
I have a quotation on my wall of Don R. Swanson at the Graduate Library School
and Center for Info. Studies at U of Chicago that may also apply to the
discussion:
-
"Science may be better served by a new image of its literature as a vast mosaic
of undiscovered connections, a potential source of countless recombinant
ideas--a world with its own endless frontier."
-
Those connections can be aided by computer searches, but it takes people
who try to think from multiple perspectives to give the computer the command to
look for new connections. That's where library staff training--or even
networking with communications staff--can be fruitful.
-
Carol Flaherty
Montana State University
Communications Services
416 Culbertson Hall
Bozeman, MT 59717
VOICE: (406) 994-5136
INTERNET: apbcf.msu.oscs.montana.edu
*-----

From: Calvin Boyer <cjboyer@uci.edu>
Subject: Jennings' "Regrowing" article

I second Peter Graham's reaction to Jennings' article.  It is superb
in its articulation of issues before us.  While there may be
imperfections in some of the conclusions (suggested courses of action)
or in choices of jargon ("retaliatory innovation"), few, if any,
recent statements provide a better forum for purposeful discussion.

Ms. Jennings, writing from Australia, is not insular geographically,
as Graham noted; indeed, her thesis has applicability to libraries
well beyond research institutions.  Within almost any library
in the remainder of the 90's, "traditional information gathering
behavior" of library users will fiercely compete for the finite
amount of time available to the staff to pursue new or improved
services.  Not only must the staff continue to meet ongoing demands,
they must change the bases of many operations in order to
provide new or improved services while they themselves are changing
assignments or the ways in which they discharge assignments.

Given the interdependent nature of library operations, virtually
everyone must be involved.  The degree to which individually and
collectively the staff becomes responsible for altering the present
paradigm of services will in very large measure determine the extent
to which the library is successful in the increasingly electronic
environment.  In turn how fully the staff assumes such
responsibilities will be determined in similar large measure by how
well the library supports each during this extended process.  Nowhere
is the importance of this support more readily evident than in the
adoption and development of new information technologies.

Ms. Jennings leaves no doubt about the pivotal role of the library
director in these efforts.  Intuitively from her article, one may draw
that there is a second body that is equally pivotal--the whole library staff.
To reinforce this latter contention, it might be helpful if we were to
coin an analogy to "TQM," but something more elegant than "TSI," total
staff involvement.

It is especially fitting that Ms. Jennings article was issued
through the electronic world network.  It appearance through this
medium highlights elegantly not only the excitement of our future but
some of the frustrations before us as well.  For those "plugged into
the electronic network" the receipt of the article was near
instantaneous upon its release.  Those who chose could redirect it to
others with dispatch.  Some of our local frustrations may be addressed by
implementation of NREN, that is, extending the electronic network
to those now unserved.  For many of us, we are yet in the infancy period
of effective network utilization.  Such assistance as the INTERNET
Explorer's Toolkit, recently announced in PACS-L, is a godsend for many.

There is a recent companion publication that seems to fit well in all
of this:

Michael Buckland  Redesigning Library Services: A Manifesto
American Library Association  1992

calvin boyer
university of california, irvine library
cjboyer@uci.edu  cjboyer@uci.bitnet
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU