From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2017 00:07:27 -0600

I would agree, generally, with this statement, but with one exception:

>> we're in
>> it because we believe we have The Good Stuff, the high quality,
>> curated, peer-reviewed, significant, factual, truthful, provocative,
>> cutting-edge stuff

The exception is The Bad Stuff that needs to be available in at least
academic libraries because of the historical roles they have played.
Examples would include Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion, and anything Donald Trump has written (just kidding about the
last one!).

Sandy Thatcher


> From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 19:42:34 -0700
>
> Tony, you provoke a story.  When I was first introduced to the staff
> at ASU I told them what I still tell them.  Think about how you would
> proceed if the library were a business that monetized every
> transaction:  every search, every consult, every web page served,
> every circulation transaction, every ILL, whatever.  (Then I
> interrupted myself to reassure them that, no, we weren't going to
> monetize everything!)  But think, I said, what you would do in that
> case to push product.  What would you do to maximize revenue from
> transactions?  Whatever the answer to that question might be:  that's
> what we should be doing.  We're not in it for the money, but we're in
> it because we believe we have The Good Stuff, the high quality,
> curated, peer-reviewed, significant, factual, truthful, provocative,
> cutting-edge stuff and we believe that it's in our users' interest for
> us to be as successful as possible in helping them find what they need
> in order to be amazingly successful in their academic work.
>
> We've all got a long way to go to make that happen, but I strongly
> believe it's what we have to do and who we have to be.  We're doing a
> major building redesign now and we're going to put special collections
> on the main floor.  A nineteen-year-old coming into the building to do
> their calculus homework is going to see something that's new to them
> and that piques their curiosity into coming back and going for more:
> the equivalent of putting the cosmetics counter at the entrance to the
> department store from the mall.  If we push product successfully,
> we'll be valued and valuable for a long time.  Fail in that mission
> and we all lose.
>
> P.S. wouldn't it be interesting if more publishers and vendors thought
> the same way about the products they push to libraries?
>
> Thanks for the prompt,
> Jim O'Donnell
> ASU