I'm not sure I explained it well then. I'm a librarian though, and I'm biased towards having the saved labor. All books and patrons in one database, which allows quick cataloging, book loans between institutions, scanning a barcode vrs illegible handwriting, tracking, weeding statistics...all at a button press. Some of those processes used to take weeks, with a high error rate.
Now that I think about it, how can you *not* see a need for a database when dealing with tens of thousands of cataloged books?
The problem here is assuming that everything must be computerized... for no good reason other than everything must be computerized. When I was six, the teacher pulling a card from the pocket in the book, having me print my name, stamping the card and the book with with the due date, and then filing the card worked just fine.
I'm no luddite or technophobe by any stretch, but sometimes electronic/automated systems are solutions in search of a problem.
Inventory, late-return spreadsheets, a central database over an entire district, tracking moving children and their withdrawn books. And that’s just from the top of my head. Computerizing the library is a huge, huge positive step forward.
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I'm not sure I explained it well then. I'm a librarian though, and I'm biased towards having the saved labor. All books and patrons in one database, which allows quick cataloging, book loans between institutions, scanning a barcode vrs illegible handwriting, tracking, weeding statistics...all at a button press. Some of those processes used to take weeks, with a high error rate. Now that I think about it, how can you *not* see a need for a database when dealing with tens of thousands of cataloged books?
Inventory, late-return spreadsheets, a central database over an entire district, tracking moving children and their withdrawn books. And that’s just from the top of my head. Computerizing the library is a huge, huge positive step forward.