Several times a year, we receive catalogs from booksellers that we must pour over and choose books from for the library. (Publishing companies put out their own catalogs, but libraries tend to use companies that sell books from a variety of publishers.) It feels like Christmas when we can take our time and read through the selections, picking out whatever books we might need for our collection. Often, the catalogs provide just a brief synopsis of each book, along with cataloging information or announcements about awards. They aren’t very detailed, but we get a good sense of the book before ordering.
In the past, we would make our selections and fax an order to the company. It was fast and simple, but often, we’d have to prepare a large list at one time and then send it. More recently, some of the booksellers have made ordering easier, by providing an online link. It is not only instant now, but if we only have time to place a few books on the list at one sitting, that’s okay. We can still see what we have ordered the next time we log on to avoid duplicate orders. This is a great system….but what if it could be better?
Publishing houses in the US, such as HarperCollins, began pushing the idea of only producing an online catalog. It would save paper, make it easier for everyone to have the catalog at their fingertips on the day it is released and allow for online ordering. They even added features like media-rich content for each book, with author bios, links to websites,video clips and more. It would actually make the experience of choosing books better, in a lot of ways. Sometimes, a synopsis is not enough to get a good sense of the book. Or sometimes, the book itself is not desirable to a library, due to the binding, illustrations or some other reason, but we might not know that from a one-paragraph blurb. An interactive site would make odering books much more enjoyable and informative.
However, as HarperCollins found out, many of the people who normally requested a paper catalog were turned off by the idea of a strictly online version and they ended up printing a catalog anyway. It seems that people just can’t get into the idea of a virtual work world.
So why are people so reluctant to change when it could be in their best interests? Maybe the choice should be eliminated entirely? What do you think?
We’re now on Twitter! Yes, you can now follow our tweets from the Carleton Place Public Library! We’ll keep you informed about special library activities, daily happenings and general interest items. We might post about new books or what’s happening with our book sale, but it’ll be fun. You can see all of our tweets on the right hand side of this blog, or follow us by clicking on the little bird below!
