[Publib] CD-ROM collections

[Mark Furukawa]

We've stopped buying CD-ROMs and are letting the collection die by
attrition. We have had many compatibility problems - what works on one PC
may not even work on another with the same OS. Circulation dropped as
patrons discovered that the programs didn't work, or work right, too often.
Then, Windows upgrades creates additional compatibility issues - kind of
expensive to have to replace titles because of MS's greedy planned
obsolescence timetable. Vista is probably the final death knell for our
collection. What worked on Win98 (sort of), sometimes sort of worked on
WinXP, will almost certainly choke on Vista (as I am).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Furukawa, Branch Head
Calumet Township Branches
of Lake County Public Library
940 N. Broad St.
Griffith, IN 46319-1528 (USA)
mfurukawa(at)lakeco.lib.in.us
http://www.lakeco.lib.in.us/griffith.htm
http://www.lakeco.lib.in.us/blackoak.htm
http://www.lakeco.lib.in.us/fortyfirst.htm
     May I deal with honor,
     May I act with courage,
     May I achieve humility.
                from "Straight"
                by Dick Francis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
 
|Anne Slaughter <aslaughter at linc.lib.il.us> wrote:
|  Hello all,
|
|I'm new to the list and I have a question for those of you with
|CD-ROM collections.
|
|Specifically, have any of you decided to discontinue purchasing new
|CD-ROMs? If so, why? I'd appreciate any insight into this
|collection area. I searched through the PUBLIB archives, and it
|seems like it was discussed a lot in the mid-90's, and almost not at
|all in the last few years.
|
|Thanks in advance,
|Anne Slaughter, Reference Librarian
|Franklin Park Public Library District
|847.455.6016 x232
|www.franklinparklibrary.com