I'm here at the information desk trying desperately to stay awake. Unfortunately that 8p.m. cup of coffee wore off about 30 minutes ago. So, to keep myself awake I continued my research into the world of information science.
I just started reading Everything is Miscellaneous (2007) by David Weinberger. The introduction has a wonderful example about the organization of a Staples store, stating that your typical neighborhood staples has 7,185 different items in it. Weinberger goes on to state that when you come to Staples with a list of 15 things you have 7,170 items that are essentially hiding your 15 items, i.e. making it difficult for you to complete a relatively simple task.
So what about libraries? Weinberger goes on to make the point that the digital world makes problems of physics less relevant, but when it comes to finding academic information I don't think anyone would argue that it is easy. Here at Iowa we have roughly 4 million books. If you account for our journal subscriptions (both print and online) we have untold millions of articles. So consider the plight of the undergraduate, "Um, yeah. Dude I need an article about the foreign policy of the United States. . . where do I go." What can we do?! We need to do something. I have long been an advocate for large scale federated searching, but after working with several systems I don't think that is possible. Better information literacy? Better interfaces? Wine bar in the library?
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8 comments:
How about just a regular bar - that way you can get wine AND mojitos and amaretto sours!
Staples has a reason for not making it TOO easy to find what you are looking for.
If you have to look around you may find something else to purchase.
Ever wondering why grocery stores or superstores don't have a cooler with milk or eggs or bread right there in front for your convenience?
However I don't think that this is the strategy that most libraries are attempting to employ to up circulation statistics.
Additionally most libraries don't have the support system to follow up with patrons that are not finding what they are looking for.
My 5 cents.
Heath,
I don't think that libraries are trying to hide information. I do, however, believe that the large amounts of information in libraries make it difficult to find information, period.
As long as libraries don't shelve the raisins out of sight and above the produce, it's okay. Seriously, you can't have a wholesome breakfast without raisins, and who in their right mind would look for them above the produce?
No, really, I have a point. I couldn't find the raisins on my own because they weren't on the shelf were I would have put them ("Dried Fruit"), so I had to ask for help. It's what I would do at Staples, and it's what I would do at a library. No matter what kind of searching system your library develops, the fastest retrieval method for some items might be finding a human mediator.
Bethany,
Ahhhhh my dear Bostonian. But what about library anxiety? worse yet store anxiety. Perhaps I'm playing into a male stereotype but I don't like to ask for help when looking for stuff.
I suffer from library anxiety as much as the next person (if not more, since I'm also plagued by the feeling that, as a librarian, I shouldn't need help), but I don't think that avoiding the issue is going to help anybody. People don't want to ask for help because they don't want to seem stupid, so why not make it clear that librarians appreciate questions and won't think any worse of people for needing assistance?
Back to the grocery store metaphor (it rhymes!), why aren't libraries following HyVee's example and advertising A Helpful Smile in Every Aisle?
My problem in libraries is generally not that I cant find what I'm looking for, but that on the way to finding what I'm looking for I find other stuff that's awesome and 2 hours later I've been reading books on Nazis when I was looking for books on Communists. Even if they are right next to each other. Because some have pictures and/or catchy titles. :-)
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