Beyond the Online Catalog
| Published date | 01 March 1989 |
| Pages | 81-91 |
| Date | 01 March 1989 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047768 |
| Author | Chris Sugnet,Alison Curtis,Joseph Matthews,Dan Haverkamp,Charles Farley,James Michael |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The Vendor's Corner
Beyond the Online Catalog
A forum edited by Chris Sugnet
Contributions by Alison Curtis, Joseph Matthews,
Dan Haverkamp, Charles Farley, and James Michael
Alison Curtis, Joseph Matthews, Dan Haverkamp,
Charles Farley, and James Michael
offer their comments on the future of library
automation from their perspective as vendors. This
forum updates a similar symposium published four
years earlier. When read in tandem, the 1985 forum
and the 1989 version cover most of the same tech-
nologies (CD-ROM, OPACs, gateways, but not ex-
pert systems and FAX) and issues (standards, co-
operation, money) but there is a difference. It is
one of emphasis. In 1985 the emphasis seemed to
be on the potential of new technologies to solve
problems. Today the emphasis is more on the prob-
lems to be encountered and conquered if these
technologies are to reach their real potential.
Back in 1985, in issue number 12 of Library
Hi Tech, five consultants responded to the question
"What lies beyond the online catalog" in a forum
that has had a remarkable number of requests for
reprints. With the present forum we have taken
the opportunity to ask the same question of five
library systems vendors. What lies ahead as we
enter the next decade? Will we continue our search
for the perfect online public access catalog or local
integrated system, or will events and new technologies
demand a shift of sights beyond traditional borders?
In this forum, Alison Curtis, Joseph Matthews,
Dan Haverkamp, Charles Farley, and James Michael
offer their comments on the future from their per-
spective as vendors. The keynote issue of this forum,
the future of library automation, was outlined in
a series of questions focusing on the evolution
of new technological developments, access to new
information resources, changes in librarians' roles
and in library services, and how to plan for these
changes at the local and national levels. The con-
tributors were asked to use as narrow or as broad
a focus as necessary, to be as creative as they
needed to present their cases.
In response, they offer us individualized visions
covering both the risks and rewards of the integration
of new technologies into the library environment.
Here are some of the common themes that shake
out of an uncommonly diverse set of essays:
More Powerful Computers
Haverkamp and Michael propose that the power
Sugnet is social sciences acquisitions librar-
ian, University Library, University of Arizona,
Tucson, Arizona.
ISSUE 27 81
To continue reading
Request your trial