academic reading

[shootingstar]

Had the nearly laughable experience where I was trying to evaluate in totality all new publications from a large, multi-party publisher. So I went into their database which covers over 30 other sub-publishers for 20 different topics.

I had to execute separate database searches to even get a list under a topic ....since this publisher has hundreds of titles in its inventory. I would have to check under 90% of its topics. Already wasted a few min. for each fuller database record to open so that I read the new book content summary for me to even make an assessment.

I was angry and frustrated...it was a waste of 2 hrs. of time as a manager. So I ordered their free 250+ pg. print catalogue so I could plan collections development for the library and look at my budget. At least, I could quickly flip pages, jump around within the print catalogue and quickly browse to make my decisions.

Moral: There are different situations that do require print vs. electronic. It isn't always our human limitation fault. Online books don't really allow the degree of freewheeling browsing.