Category Archives: search and discovery

Anti-Choice (or Pro-Simplicity) is Nice When You Can Get It

By Iris | Published: Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
We’re knee-deep in our MetaLib implementation project, and as we do our best to make decisions about our interface, we keep removing all the extra links and options and tabs that clutter up the default interface. Do we really need two different ways to get to the database list? Do we really need both Simple [...]
Posted in search and discovery | 5 Comments

These are a few of my favorite things

By Iris | Published: Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
I found myself listing my three favorite e-resources today. Usually I have trouble coming up with my favorite of anything, but these three popped into my head with little effort. Ulrich’sI hate trying to figure out where an obscure serial has been indexed, but Ulrich’s makes this easy (most of the time). But even beyond [...]
Also posted in teaching and learning | 3 Comments

Another Reason Our Legacy Systems Must Evolve or Die

By Iris | Published: Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
In a not-so-recent New Yorker that I hadn’t yet read, I ran across this sentence about Google’s emerging advertising markets: Two vital markets are television, which is ‘easily attainable,’ and mobile phones, which are ‘more personable’ and more ‘targetable’ than most advertising. (Auletta 36) This resonated with something that John Riedl (keynote speaker extraodinaire) said [...]
Also posted in tools and technology | 2 Comments

Collection Development Choices: the Example of JSTOR

By Iris | Published: Sunday, May 25th, 2008
Here I am at the reference desk for one of my Sunday shifts this term.* Sitting here, trying not to think about the tornado watch we’re under, or about cook-outs, or about holidays in general, I started thinking about JSTOR and what a perfect example it is of a whole cluster of things I’m sure [...]
Also posted in libraries and librarians | 2 Comments

Method as Content for Undergraduates

By Iris | Published: Friday, May 23rd, 2008
I wish it were possible for our bibliographic databases to index works according to the methodology or theoretical approach of the author. I know it’s not possible in many cases, but man oh man I wish it were. For a lot of undergraduates, finding examples of scholars employing a methodology or approach is high up [...]
Also posted in libraries and librarians | 7 Comments