Re: TARGET->Mission issue: How do YOU see it?

[Pat Wamsley <patw1@MUSKOX.ALASKA.EDU>]

The problem you are facing is the reason I chose to have my Dynix Scholar
OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) run on 3 TERMINALS instead of
computers first. (Scholar lets you run on Macs, IBMs, etc, as well as
terminals-just monitors & keyboards) connected to the main server, and you
can also run it over the school network.

The only thing those terminals do is act as computer catalogs -- and that
is all I want them to do.  We also have 8 or 9 networked computers in the
library that do everything else, cd's - word processing, etc., plus can
run the OPAC.

The terminals and computers are all in use most of the day.  We need
more, of course. I'm trying to get a mini-lab setup.



Pat Wamsley (patw1@muskox.alaska.edu)  |{ancient Chinese blessing/curse}
wk: Colony HS Library (907) 746-9538   |
hm: 3700 Spruce Top Circle             | "May you live
    Wasilla, AK 99654 (907) 376-8854   |         in interesting times!"

On Thu, 12 Oct 1995, Jeffrey Hastings wrote:

> I want your opinion on this situation.  I am very distressed because I
> have spent four years developing a Middle School Library which I now feel
> on the brink of perfecting, BUT, as I see it, I am suddenly being asked
> to add non-library services to my facility from administration and
> mucking up what was to have been a great program.
>  Here's the scene:
> I was vocal as an advocate for automation.  Following a hard drive
> failure on an old apple II circ system I appealed that the time was right
> for automation and administration listened and, about nine months later,
> I have a fully automated circ/cat program(winnebago) running on a Novell
> network with six workstations (I would like to call them
> "searchstations") on the floor for students.*
> As soon as the hardware was in and I had things up and running to a
> satisfactory degree, the technology coordinator walks in and tells me
> that she is going to have other software programs installed for teachers
> to use on these stations-- programs for drill and instruction, record
> keeping, etc.
> Now-- we have a computer lab. It's a Mac Lab with about 15 macs and 15
> apple IIs.
> Yet I was being asked to put this stuff on the library catalog platform
> which was now home to the catalog, a periodical index/database, and a
> database of career information, all of which are read only resources
> consistent with the library mileau. I was steamed.
> The arguments I heard were predicatable:
> "but don't you WANT to attract teachers into the library?"
> "Perhaps my idea of what a library is is BROADER than yours..)"
> Boy, those arguments insult me. BROADER to me means BLURRIER in this case
> and the former argument is just rhetoric: I could give away money to
> attract teachers too.
> Here's the case: I had a great little LAN going (for about a week) with
> just the right amount of solid library resources on it.  Some students
> were confused as to the nature of the resources, but they were quickly
> catching on. Now I feel its about to be wrecked.
>
> *Am I overreacting?
> *Am I being used as a surrogate "computer lab supervisor" rather than a
> librarian.
> *Are such non-library services and ADDITION TO or a DILUTION FROM my mission?
>
> Do YOU have similar stories about librarians whose catalogs, once
> automated, became computer "labs" with all sorts of stuff put on to
> them?  Is this O.K. in your opinion?  Let me know what YOU think.
>
> *by the way, never did I explicitly or tacitly agree to administer a
> computer lab.
> --
>
> ----JEFFREY G. HASTINGS -- E-MAIL: JHASTING@edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu --------
> or 73164.423@compuserve.com  -Hell is other people.- FAX: (517) 545-1407
>