Colleagues:
I certainly have to agree that plannning for technology is very
difficult. Apart from the basic problem of trying to guess what the
current state of the art will be in 6 months, a year, two years, etc.,
there is a conceptual problem to deal with. It really is no longer
possible to think about computers, servers, mass storage devices, and
other hardware in the way we are used to. To make an analogy to library
materials, we have to think about hardware not as monographs (you pay for
it once, then you can use it indefinitely), but rather as a continuation
(you buy it, then you either pay for continuations or new editions, lest
it become obsolete).
Most people who work with technology understand this, but many people who
make funding decisions do not. Part of planning for future technology
needs involves making a concerted effort to educate those who fund it.
The reality of constant change in hardware is one of the forces which is
making it more attractive to buy access to information, rather than
owning it outright. This shifts a larger proportion of the cost of
keeping up with technology onto the entity which collects, stores, and
distributes the information, but at the cost of much less control over
the content and availability of that information.
I hope that publishers are keeping in mind the hardware costs associated
with the real world, effective use of their products. Failure to do so
could seriously limit the market for those products. It doesn't matter
how great the product is, or even how small the profit margin
[hypothetically] is, if the targeted customers simply can't afford the
combined cost of the product itself, and the other hardware and software
necessary to use it.
(too darn cold out here to stay on this soapbox any longer - I think I'll
go inside, where it is warm. . .)
Christopher Noe
Associate Law Librarian for Public Services
College of Law Library; University of Idaho
noe@uidaho.edu
Voice phone: (208) 885-6521 FAX phone: (208) 885-2743
Wireless: N7AMG
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