🚀 go-pugleaf

Money is a huge problem, but it is not the sole obstacle to offering
Internet access to the patrons at the library. There are many problems
associated with this proposal, but I believe they can be overcome with
some effort. One of the biggest problems is training, exacerbated by the
difficult interface most users encounter using the Internet. How many public
librarians know how to proficiently navigate the Internet themselves, let
alone feel confident enough to teach their patrons? Even with easy access
to an Internet account, many librarians feel too overwhelmed by the
multitude of electronic tools already at their disposal to see the value
of learning another, more cryptic and less organized tool for information
retrieval. Why go searching for an informational needle in the Internet
haystack when you can use DIALOG, on which you've had adequate training
and which meets your librarian's standards for logical and effective use?

Until the interface is improved, making the use of the Internet easy and
intuitive, librarians will be hesitant to expend much energy trying to
figure it out. I think there is also a perception that the general
public isn't interested in Internet access yet, that it's still the domain
of University researchers, Computer Science students and hackers. I think
this is false, but maybe I'm wrong. I'm convinced that the Internet is the
"virtual library" of the future, the electronic library we in the library
field have all been reading about for years now, but I'm having a hard
time convincing my peers. I administer an Internet account at Denver
Public Library and we have some 40 individual staff members with accounts,
yet only perhaps 6 are really using the accounts. Excuses given are not
enough time (true), hard to get to a machine with a modem (ours are
dial-in accounts), too difficult, what am I supposed to be using it for?
I'm working with our local supplier to develop a Gopher interface. Maybe
when that is installed, we'll see more interest. Our director is
interested in the idea of patron access, but until we staff know how to
use the tool ourselves, that will have to wait.

Nancy Lombardo
Denver Public Library
nancy@csn.org