Over on the WEB4LIB mailing list, there's been a fascinating discussion evolving about marketing, ubiquity, and library web services. It kind of starts here in a comment about Gmail but you'll need to use the date index to follow where it goes.

You already know where I fall in the debate (I'm closely aligned with Karen Schneider's and Alane Wilson's responses), so I'll just encourage you to read through the whole thing (watch the subject lines - they morph into new ones) because it's one of the better discussions I've seen on the topic lately with lots of good points. Finally, we're seeing a more aggressive conversation!

One thread I do want to highlight (well, I hope it becomes a thread), is Stephen De Gabrielle's attempt to suggest a course of action. There were other suggestions, but this is a new one that could help long-term if we can get the vendors to agree to it.

"Why don't we have a common API for all ILS? - and demand these of our ILS vendors.(Libraries have always led the way in standards.)

I assume this list is as good a place as any to start the process.

What do list members think would be appropriate services for such and API?"

Maybe then we could focus all of our various programming efforts on the greater good instead of just our own local catalogs.

I've been so short on time lately that I've been trying to avoid using what little blogging time I do have to simply repost what other library bloggers are already putting up. This one, however, was just too good to pass up.

when was the last time you had this kind of response to a new library service?

"Brian didn’t give me permission to publish a portion of his email, but I’m so excited about it I’m going to throw caution into the wind. He wrote [emphasis mine]:

'Rule number 1: Don’t send out IM reference fliers to every middle school and jr. high classroom on the same day!

Had to have been at least 100 IMs in the first 2 hours after the kiddies got home. For a while, I had about 20 IM windows up at once.' "

Someone recently observed that there are a lot of Eeyores in the library community, but I think we can officially declare IM reference a Martha-Stewart-good-thing for (at least) public libraries and move it to Pooh status.

Cost of purchasing the AIM software: $0.
Cost of staff time to "man" the AIM service during those two hours: already paid for.
Satisfaction of having 100 kids respond positively and view the library in a new light: PRICELESS.