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Open-stack still matters in browsing discovery and immediacy. I haven't yet seen a good interface to replace that. The mediocre interfaces might win soon just b
by creer 3y ago
Open-stack still matters in browsing discovery and immediacy. I haven't yet seen a good interface to replace that. The mediocre interfaces might win soon just because too few items are on the shelf - and more are digital.
Some libraries still use closed stacks. Some now use remote, closed stacks. Perhaps because their stacks are basically too dangerous or ugly for the general public - or too far. It might be debatable whether paging is more costly than self-service but at least that's the library's problem. What I miss is browsing discovery.
- all2 3y agoI miss browsing at a well stocked library. Walking through the stacks and lingering at a segment of sports science publications or gawking at the quantum mechanics publications and wondering at the abstracts I could barely understand, it brought out "wonder" much in the same way that hiking through a forest or out to see a waterfall does.
- creer 3y agoOh, one counter example, kind of, is San Francisco main public library. Open stack, large, rich, and all that - but most sections don't get new books. So browsing the stacks is downright depressing: all you see is outdated books and often few of them. Browsing "What's new" is still good but the stacks are becoming useless.