Something else that I found interesting is that LGPL has terminals over desktops for their public workstations. Henry seemed to think that it was cheaper than desktops but was less flexible for the patron. I didn’t even know that libraries still used terminals over desktops.

All in all it was a good chat and I learned some fun and interesting things. I’m really hoping that I can mess around with LT for Libraries. Whether the kids would actually use the content provided is another story, but it might come in handy anyway.

I wish I could visit Las Gatos Public Library. It sounds like a great library that is open to change and innovation. Henry Bankhead was great. I highly recommend him for any of your reference needs. The only negative thing that resulted from this chat is that I again realized the depth of my frustration with Chicago Public Library.

IM Interview

Questions:

• Do you get many IM questions?
• How long has your library had IM reference?
• Who started IM reference?
• Did you have a hard time implementing it?
• How did you go about implementing it?
• How did the IT department react to the idea?
• How big is your library?
• How many IM reference questions do you get per shift (roughly?)
  • How about email reference?
• What is your workflow like?
• Which patrons get preference?

50% positive,
37.5% indifferent,
12.5% negative.

It looks like the majority has come down on the side of BISAC and Maricopa. What does this mean for the future? These are the future librarians of America and it looks like they would implement BISAC in a library. Even the indifferent ones would probably go along with an implementation. Will the Dewey system slowly fall by the wayside to be forgotte? Maybe, maybe not. The Dewey system is entrenched. There is A LOT of library infrastructure built around it. To really implement something like BISAC would mean Stripping a lot of book spines of their Dewey stickers, editing the catalog data to include BISAC data, recoding the catalog software to accommodate BISAC. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be done to fully implement BISAC. I don’t think it’s something that can be phased in but has to be done all at once. That’s not to say that I’m against BISAC. I, for one, welcome our new BISAC overlords. Whatever works. Honestly I don’t really care one way or another.

1. The Card Catalog taken by haaaley.