[Lswtalk] Databases

[Howard Coy]

I had a long talk with Diane Brown Friday at the State Documents Advisory Council meeting. I expressed low usage of some of the databases for us. She asked me if patrons were going through our web page or direct. I told her we were encouraging/saying our web page. She said it was more convenient for the patron to use direct, they didn't have to have a library card. I bristled! I informed her that one could be too convenient, and that some things just needed inconvenience, but more importantly, it was important to Public Libraries to have their tax payers realize immediate that their library was needed to access these things, otherwise, close us down and let everyone go direct. And that many, if not most of my patrons assumed that if they used anything on the Internet, we were not needed.  She looked stunned.
 
Just this weekend, our local Genealogical and Historical Society sent me a link to their new website, wanting me to link to it. When I visited the site, there was a page of "resources", not one mentioned the library, our Flickr site, or archives, much less the online catalog of all materials including books. I immediately sent an e-mail stating that as of now, much info was not on websites, but still in books, and may never be on the web, and that no research was complete without using all resources. I also suggested that they link to our Flickr  site and online catalog. 
 
The State Library wants us to fight for them, and I am willing to do so, but don't stab me in the back. This is the second time I have expressed my concern with them bypassing the library.
 
Howard




Howard L. Coy Jr., Director
Vernon Parish Library
1401 Nolan Trace @ Abe Allen Drive
Leesville, LA 71446
1-800-737-2231 FAX 337-238-0666 hcoy at state.lib.la.us
www.vernon.lib.la.us
BLOG: http://vernonlibrary.blogspot.com
PHOTOS: www.flickr.com/photos/vernonparish/


"A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have...." 
-- Gerald R. Ford 8/12/74
"Lost yesterday,somewhere between sunrise and sunset, 60 golden minutes, each set with 60 diamond seconds. No reward is offered, because they are lost forever." -- Horace Mann
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