Joyce Valenza

Database debate continued
August 14, 2007

As a follow-up to my last post about databases, this debate also lives on the Chronicle of Higher Education in the article, A List Without Libraries. 

The concern surrounded The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies' recent post--a list of Top 10 Tools for Learning selected by "101 (e-)learning professionals (consultants, analysts, developers, practitioners, academics, etc) who responded to our open invitation." Among the selections were browsers, blogging programs, RSS feeds, and PowerPoint.  Library resources were absent.

“It’s not as if the responding experts ignored information-retrieval tools,” writes Steven Bell at ACRLog. “Both Google and Google Scholar are on the top-100 list. And it’s not as if these experts wouldn’t know something about library databases.”

While Steve Bell notes that marketing is one of the issues, Stephen Downes (OLDaily), senior researcher for Canada’s National Research Council, points to problems with the tools themselves. Downes notes that he has access to a major library portal, but according to the CHE piece,

he has used the services only twice in six years. “The reason,” he writes, “is that it is not convenient, not even remotely, especially with the layers of security involved in protecting publisher’s intellectual property.”

Among the comments: Perhaps the survey's question did not inspire responses that would include databases.  Perhaps the survey solicited tools rather than resources.  Perhaps the e-learning professionals interviewed were not academics; perhaps only academics really care about databases. (What about databases aimed at children's or professionals' needs?)  Perhaps the free tools are just as good.

While I live a good deal of my life on databases, most of the rest of the world doesn't seem to know or care about them or the roles they might play in meeting users needs for specific information tasks--for example, literary criticism, contemporaneous research (say for the Cold War), balanced evidence for debates or essays, scholarly and scientific research, magazine articles for middle school learners.

I think both Steph(v)ens are right. But what do we do?  How do we market? How do we make these rich tools even remotely convenient?  What will the vendors and our state organizations do to help?

Database lovers, we need a summit! 

Visit my other blog for a more personal take. 

Posted by Joyce Valenza on August 14, 2007 | Comments (0)