Reaction and Evaluation Reaction to the Virtual Pathfinder, from librarians who have seen it, has been very favourable. And it seems that students use it. Our logs note that in January 1996, the script that controls the Pathfinder was executed over 500 times. During that time it is very doubtful that we distributed 500 paper Pathfinders from our library. The Virtual Pathfinder has a different set of strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the paper version that inspired it.
New materials appear as soon as they enter the catalogue.
One librarian confessed, after seeing the Virtual Pathfinder, that in her library their printed Pathfinders were so out of date that she was ashamed of them. With budget and staff cutbacks, it appears many libraries do not have time to revise such materials. But while a Virtual Pathfinder may take some of this burden off the library staff, it imposes more of a burden on the user. A printed Pathfinder presents materials carefully chosen to match the skills of the beginning user. The Virtual Pathfinder may present too many works to be useful or none at all.