Are Vendors Making What Librarians Want?
June 21st, 2004Interesting article from Library Journal:
“Daniel Walters, executive director of the Las Vegas/Clark County Library, recently took automation vendors to task, saying that they have “fundamentally missed the business we’re in”. He asserts that vendors market products that librarians simply must make do with rather than providing the exact tools that really are needed. Serious accusations. LJ polled several top vendors for their response, and while they insist that there is constant input from the field, not all disagreed with Walters’ statement.”
“The products that are produced, are in fact, the products that the majority of libraries tell us they want and are willing to pay for with their money,” said VTLS President Carl Grant. “That said, the reality is that vendors frequently do try to provide a ‘push’ in technology, only to encounter resistance.” Grant adds that Walters is right in that “many of the products available today are neither flexible enough nor visionary enough to provide a comprehensive environment for bringing information into a library’s portal.” However, he says that there are solutions available “if libraries are willing to accept that the solutions to some of these problems come with requirements that they have to spend a great deal more time (or be willing to pay the vendor) for additional design, configuration and support, and continual updating to reflect the ever-changing environment around them.”
***COUGH*** RSS ***COUGH***
Speaking of which, a few weeks ago, I mentioned that Ingenta will be supporting RSS in a new product called Ingenta Connect and asked Ingenta to contact me. Well, they did and I had a conference call with them last week. We spoke for an hour about how they will be implementing RSS into Ingenta Connect and much more. I’ll be writing more about this conversation in a future post on ResourceShelf. My point is that Ingenta took the time to speak to a librarian and get some input. Great job Ingenta. I salute you.