library disruption

dear readers

well, helloooooooooooo (in my best julia child or mrs. doubtfire voice).

if you will recall, dear reader, in my last post, i was bemoaning the fact that there wasn't anything new on the horizon to talk about.

well, guess what? that's still the case (haha - gotcha). but i did find this little entry worth a mini-blog entry.

it's about disruption. no, not volcanic (besides, that's eruption). but disruption as in some outside influence upsetting the apple cart, changing the status quo, rocking the boat.

business insider (one of my FAVE websites) posted an article originally posted on quora, titled "craigslist has been disrupted, it's just not obvious yet". the basic gist of the article is that craigslist has a LOT of competitors, but these competitors just haven't been able to take hold of their marketshare . . . yet! checkout a few competitors: clist rideshare/use pickuppal, clist arts&crafts/use etsy, clist tickets/use stubhub!

i know, i know, get to the point. well, one of our savvy compadres over at "a digital outrigger" created a chart to show how academic LIBRARIES can be/are being disrupted. take a gander at this (scroll down): for example, alternatives to using the library's catalog could be worldcat, google books, library thing or netflix. need a journal? how about citeseer, doaj, or scitopia. if citations are your cuppatea, there's zotera and endnote. but what about chatting with a librarian, you say? what about yahoo answers, ask.com, or answers.com?

is this disruption (as in i won't use the library website, i'll go straight to these sources) or are we comparing apples and oranges? are these supplemental web resources that students will use in addition to their library catalog. or in lieu of? (insert ominous background music here)

just something to think about.

happy reading . . . no matter the format.