Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

April 2004 Volume 2 (2)

Endpiece

All will be revealed

Brian Osborne ponders the increased 'pester power' endowed by Web-enabled Opacs...

Reading Gordon Dunsire & George Macgregor’s article on SPEIR in Information Scotland December 2003 made me think about some of the potential problems that librarians may face in this brave new world of Z39.50 compliant catalogues and Web-enabled Opacs. Of course the idea of users being able to search catalogues remotely and transparently must be a good thing from almost every point of view. Efficient, customer friendly and contributing to the integration of a networked information service, such developments are surely to be welcomed by all.

And so they are, but have you thought of the insight that such online catalogues gives to the public into the arcane mysteries (or even, whisper it, the short-comings) of your book selection policies and procedures? For the first time the public can see that you have managed to buy Volumes 1 and 4 of a multi-part work but somehow missed Volumes 2 and 3. Perhaps more embarrassingly they can see that you are trying to cover the whole service with two copies of the Booker prize-winning novel that everyone has requested three months ago and is desperately wanting to read.

Now if this Web-enabled insight into your service’s inner workings is available to the general public it is also available to authors! Authors, it cannot be emphasised too often, are not the same thing as the general public – they are much, much worse and bring with them a vast amount of peculiar hang-ups and insecurities. In a way they are a bit like librarians.

Librarians, for example, have long been convinced, with good cause, that nobody appreciates and loves them. I was one for thirty odd years and certainly nobody appreciated and loved me. I now, with hardly a blush describe myself as an author. Authors are even more insecure.

They already have a whole long list of people and organisations that are horrid to them. This includes, but is not limited to: publishers, designers, editors, agents, booksellers, reviewers, other authors (especially those who are more successful or get better reviews or better positions in bookshops). When authors get together they exchange horror stories of what this designer did to the jacket of their new book, or the errors that editor introduced into their perfect text, or the lack of imagination displayed by the publisher’s marketing department, or the ignorance of the bookseller who put their book in the wrong section.

Now, to this list, can, with modern scientific precision and computer-assistance, be added librarians who fail to stock their books in the range and quantity that the author thinks is his or her due. It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the Average Author lacks a certain something in the area of clinical detachment and objectivity. The Average Author can see no good reason why his books are not stocked in quantity in every branch library in the country. If spoken to at length by a remarkably persuasive advocate for libraries the Average Author might be prepared to accept that one copy of each title per branch was as much as they could expect in these tough times, but to find that their latest and greatest book appears nowhere in the entire stock of Drumthwacket Library & Information Services may be more than the Average Author’s pride and self-image can survive.

Authors have been told about the power of Z39.50 and the web but probably have not yet fully realised the pester power that now lies within their grasp. But this will come, just as authors have learned that online bookshops such as Amazon.co.uk offer great opportunities for self-promotion (yes, you can write your own review and rate your own book!).

It is only a matter of time before the poor, and doubtless long-suffering, Library Services Manager for Drumthwacket Council gets a letter from Drumthwacket’s favourite novelist enclosing a list of her titles and the miserable showing that they have in Drumthwacket’s On-line Catalogue and demanding an explanation. No longer will the author be able to be palmed off with the excuse that, of course, all her books are on loan, or that they are in stock at Meikle Drumthwacket whereas she uses Lesser Drumthwacket – no, the abysmal poverty of Drumthwacket Council’s stock will stand revealed for all to see. The lack of a coherent book selection policy, and the manifest incompetence of the Library Services Manager will become a matter for debate in the columns of the Drumthwacket Weekly Advertiser. Questions will be asked in the council chamber and the Director of Something Impressive Sounding will demand reports. You have been warned!

Brian Osborne (brian@bdosborne.fsnet.co.uk)

Information Scotland Vol. 2 (2) April 2004

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.

Last updated: 10 May 2004