Comments on: Santa’s Wishlist

By: kgs

kgs — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 03:29:25 +0000

Yeah, baby! Wireless electrical will change the world. I’m with you on that 100%.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:11:33 +0000

My Santa wish is wireless electrical power. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1116/p14s01-stct.html

We have 50+ year old building and we are past maxed-out on electrical capacity. We circulate 120 wireless laptops and recharging batteries is big issue. Power bricks are available, but they get used in unsafe places – stretching across aisles, etc. We’re shopping for new furniture for a 150+ cluster of desktops and getting power to those in a neat way is a huge piece of the puzzle.

By: David Bigwood

David Bigwood — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 20:19:34 +0000

Another thing I’d really like is for our Web site to use proportional width pages.

By: Fiona (infoaddict)

Fiona (infoaddict) — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 07:40:36 +0000

I wanna I wanna … I want libraries to stop being treated like the poor cousins of the “sexy” information delivery – I want them to BE the sexy information delivery. What’s sexy? Whatever is delivered by “knowledge managers” or “Chief Information Officers” or consultants with similar-sounding names and enormous hourly bills presented in a hairy, suit-clad hand (yes, I’m making a gender generalisation here. Bad Me).

What’s not sexy? Whatever is (even figuratively) delivered by in a slender, ring-clad hand with the faint (even virtual) smell of musty books in the background (more generalisations).

What bugs me BIG time, from someone who has been on both sides of this fence, is that there are two types of people doing the same sort of thing, but those who come from the IT side are given respect and kudos, and those who come from the librarian side are given the dregs of the budget and scant respect.

So yeah. All I want for Xmas is plain ol’ respect

By: kevinyezbick

kevinyezbick — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:42:23 +0000

If I can’t have my other wishes, or perhaps in conjunction with them, I’d like Eli Neiburger and John Blyberg.

By: Kevin Yezbick

Kevin Yezbick — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:26:52 +0000

I’d love to see that print / internet management system we’ve been dreaming of for the commons finally come to fruition. It seems like it’s always “just around the corner.” Only – as we approach the corner – a new ILS update appears with vicious fangs and rancid breath — and the management system cringes with fears of incompatibility!

sigh.

By: kgs

kgs — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 16:01:22 +0000

Oh, and Miriam, a BIG lump of coal to III for charging for spell-check. That reminds me of when a vendor tried to charge us extra for valid HTML! Spell-check is hardly an “innovation” at this point, lordy lordy.

By: joshua m. neff

joshua m. neff — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:45:07 +0000

Oh, I want that OPAC, too, Andrea! And I want it integrated into the rest of the library site, so that the OPAC isn’t some “other database” you have to go to.

By: kgs

kgs — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 06:56:22 +0000

These are all such great ideas. I’m mulling over the themes I see–something bigger than just the sum of its parts.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:08:44 +0000

Since you bring it up, I want an OPAC that patrons can use without training. And one that pushes non-book content like webpages and subscription databases in a user-friendly, natural way. Some vendors seem to be edging toward this, but I don’t think anyone’s there yet.