• blyberg.net » OPACs in the frying pan, Vendors in the fire
• A Wandering Eyre » OPACs (everyone together now) SUCK
• Rethink the role of the library catalog | TechEssence.Info

The topic of catalogs has come up again (Does it ever really leave?). And they’re thinking about redesigning it according to what it’s actually used for. Personally, I think the only thing needed in common is the database. Make the database open and write however many different pieces of software you need for what you need to do. Throwing all of the functions needed into one piece of software is part of what’s made it so hard to deal with already. We need to strip out the unnecessary first, then add in all the cool Web 2.0 stuff as it looks useful. And if it turns out not to be used, strip it out again. Yes, this is a much harder approach than it sounds but we’re in a hard time technologically. We get all the stuff that doesn’t work along with all the stuff that does. The thing we have to remember is to not only buy into technologies because they’re cool but to also declutter our space for users.