Libraries Outsourced: Librarians Under New Management

Chumly:

Seems like you're a techno fashionista. Remember the 80's when microcomputers arrived on the scene. $1,000 for a microcomputer with a massive 1 K memory. In those days people only wrote simple basic programs. There was the tape drive too. It could hold 320k data storage and it was a lot. Then the disk drive arrived - 8" floppies to be exact and were sure better than the tape drive. Then came the 1-1/4" disk drive that held a massive 1.2 megabytes. Hard drives in those days were 50 megabytes. The hard drive capacities kept going higher and higher every year. CPM was first operating system then with IBM personal computer came DOS. Later, IBM came out with OS/2 and Microsoft with Windows. Apple first has the window system but was effective leader technology wise but its expensive and proprietary system sidelined as a minor player in the microcomputer market as it mostly attracted graphics oriented crowd. Then computer networking came with NT operating system and Windows 95. The Millennium version of Windows came and so on. One thing was certain there were system crashes. The CPU from Intel 88 was 4.77 MHz. Two or three years later came the 286. Next, 386 arrived with 32-bit system. 486 followed then Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III and Pentium IV. High density storage came with CDs then DVDs. In the nearly thirty years we have seen massive changes. Every two three years there were new models almost like the ladies fashions. There is no stability in the computer industry. How long will the CDs be useable before they become obsolete when the computer industry no longer make CD drives. The 8" floppies are obsolete as is the monochrome monitor. CPM and DOS are gone.

There was talk of paperless society. There was even a trial that dispensed with paper by using computers. Jurors felt uneasy with the way evidence was handled by computer screen. Evidence could be manipulated just as the votes that were cast by computers in Ohio. Yes, paperless it was not as more paper was needed to print outputs. Changes were easy to make so each review had to be printed for checking.

What I am saying is that computer technology is not a reliable means of storing library information as obsolescence is far more accelerated than even the auto industry. Books are the proper medium for storage of knowledge and information. It is hard evidence and not easily corrupted and lasts for centuries.

You do live in isolation...

however I am not a closet Luddite as some of the posters here appear to be to some degree, as I judge things on their own merits

Some people can't afford a tv or a computer. Libraries are there to help everybody get information.

Please don't assume all other posters have not been in touch with handsn hard work.

ossobuco wrote:

Some people can't afford a tv or a computer. Libraries are there to help everybody get information.

That does not change the question of whether libraries have the relive efficacy to change these people money managing skills.

you know what? if you actually read the posts.....

this is just a ridiculous thing to say. you don't have to be a "closet luddite" to appreciate the look and feel of a book, get real.

When you are 78, disabled, living with two dogs, transplanted to a city where I didn't know anyone after leaving all of my friends and family, your technology needs are different than young adventurist people. My needs are now simple. Things were not always that way. I am not a Luddite.

My first computer was a George Morrow with the CPM operating system. I went to Morrow club meetings to learn more operating information.
http://www.pc-history.org/cpm.htm

I used my computer skills to create an on-line art gallery "What is Art?", which was very different from most galleries. Unfortunately, it was lost when the site owner discontinued the parent site without notice. So sad as I loved that gallery as did so many people who visited it.

BBB

oh thank you for that brilliant expose on my post and the numerous points i made, chumly.

i'll throw in an ad hom attack at no extra charge- when this becomes an intelligent conversation again, i'll come back. thanks anyway.

for christ's sake... do you honestly believe that the poor exist primarily because of a lack in money management? even if they did, what does that have to do with the advantages of public-owned libraries?!

Online photo backup
As the world moves inevitably from optical disk storage formats like CD and DVD to USB-based storage and now, increasingly, to online storage options, OneCare is evolving to meet the changing needs of consumers. As a first step into the dark waters of online backup, OneCare 2.0 offers a single option: Online photo backup. Coincidentally, I've spent the past few months doing just this, and to date, I've backed up over 22 GB of photos--four and a half years worth--to Google's PicasaWeb service. And no wonder this is such a pressing concern: These are memories, stored in digital form, and losing them to a hard drive failure, fire, or other disaster would be hard to take. Offsite online backup is an excellent option and one that all users should consider.

In OneCare 2.0, online photo backup occurs through a new Live.com service called Windows Live OneCare Online Backup, so you'll need a Windows Live ID (formerly Passport account), which is typically tied to a Hotmail email address. You'll also need a registered and activated version of OneCare 2.0, which means that this feature won't be available to most beta testers. My understanding is that the initial, free backup space will be pretty limited--probably 1 GB--but that users will be able to pay for more space on a yearly basis, per other similar offerings.

REALLY cheap" means FREE or something less than $50/year. For years companies have come and gone offering online backup services at prices in this range.

If you search the Web today you will find a few people still offering to do online backups for really cheap prices, and sometimes free. If you had searched the web a year ago you'd have found more than today. Had you searched two years ago, you'd have found maybe twice as many as today. The internet is littered with the bones of companies who thought the public wanted dirt cheap, no support, online backups.

On the other hand, you will find online backup companies who have been in business offering great service at reasonable prices for years, with numbers increasing monthly.

You get what you pay for. Almost without exception, these ultra-cheap services have no local representation nor support. They advertise only over the Web, and offer scaled-down, no-frills services. 90% of them go out of business within a couple of years because they don't charge enough to stay in business AND because customers don't take them seriously. When they go out of business their customers' data are simply erased without recourse.

Our successful Service Providers know that this business is NOT price-sensitive. In fact, with customers more aware of the value of their data these days, cheap services are not at all attractive. They don't trust them. This business is sensitive instead to reliability - security - support - integrity. It's hard to get that in a cheap service that sells for $19.95 a year, and customers can see right through that.

The business is also sensitive to software features. Our software has for years led the industry in software design. We invented Remote Backup and continue to lead it with advanced features and security not available anywhere else, and especially not in any of the dirt cheap mass market services.

Most who use our software simply are not in competition with the cheap services. Those are for customers who don't care enough about their data to spend money to adequately protect it. Again, everyone knows you get what you pay for.

Now, if you plan to advertise your service only on the Web or by Email, and you don't plan to offer any kind of personal support to your customers, and you want to try to compete head to head with these cheap services on price alone, then you will need to lower your price (obviously) to their levels. NOBODY in the serious RBS community recommends that, however.

All these arguments notwithstanding, the fact is that almost none of our Service Providers are reporting that their customers try to compare them to any dirt cheap online service. It just doesn't come up.

We are simply not in competition with the dirt-cheap services. And if you DO find yourself in competition with one of them, remind your prospect that if he had been using Driveway or Freedrive or Atrieva or any of dozens of defunct dirt cheap services who's bleached bones litter the 'net today, their mangled data would now be bleaching along with them.