US/ND-4: Re: State approved technology plans
Re: State approved technology plans
Sally Hawkes (shawkes@comp.uark.edu)
Tue, 17 Sep 1996 09:10:50 -0500 (CDT)
As a participant and liasion in a state-wide cooperative plan, I'd like to
add a few items. Our academic and public school connectivity was designed
by the same man, the Dept of Computer Services and the Arkansas State
Library are working with them to have public library system be compatible
as well. There is also several community based LAN projects going on that
are compatible to the others systems.
The bottom line is--we can't afford not to cooperate, because we don't
have a large pool of money to draw from or an inexhaustible supply. The
cooperative efforts--a state-wide technology plan--keeps us from wasting
money of project that won't mesh. Some coordinated plan between the
schools, library, state agencies, and the academic community will help in
countless ways. Sharing funds instead of competing against each other,
best use the expertise of technology personnel and ways of devising the
best use to the community.
An example of what happens when groups go different routes in networking
happened with the libraries already. We've had trouble here convincing
administrators that school libraries library holdings need to be in MARC
formats for networking--the ANSI standard. All public libraries and
academic libraries are in a shared national database but to have the
school included they'll need to spend additions funds to meet the
standards already set.
This is what can happen if each group decides to go in a different
direction. A lack of compatibility in systems occurs, as happened in
early PC days when schools were MAC based and public libraries were IBM
based. As a result of no compatibility, more money will need to be spent
to correct problems later on. We have 29 phone companies in this state so
think what would happen if each of those phone companies devised a
different plan for their communities?
Sally Hawkes 501-682-6052
Coordinator of Library Network Services 501-682-1531 fax
Arkansas State Library shawkes@comp.uark.edu
On Sun, 15 Sep 1996, Jan Bolluyt wrote:
> I disagree with Ken Hammer on one point, the state approved technology plans.
>
> The plan is not for the state, but for the library or district. Many of us
> do not have the expertise to know what is available, and will naturally look
> at other plans to copy, but is that so bad? This idea is bad only if the
> state imposes its expectations on the plan and makes us clone "the best".
>
> A mandated plan is a necessity to get everyone thinking about the goals that
> this universal service can help us meet. If we are unable, or do feel the
> time is well spent, then perhaps universal service is not needed at this time.
>
> Jan
>