[I started writing the following on Friday afternoon and never finished.  The shy side of me would say, "forget it....either finish it up or don't post it".  The more, shall we say, adventurous side says...post it and if someone finds it useful -- then great....]

Merrillee Proffitt gave a fascinating talk on RLG's RedLightGreen Project at today's Friday afternoon SIMS seminar.  I met Merrillee at CNI earlier in the week (the conference feels like ages ago already!) and was sad to miss her talk on RedLightGreen there -- so it was great to be able to hear her speak today.

Few people get excited about library catalogs -- but I'm one of them, especially when it comes to web-based library catalogs.  Even in the age of the Web, and perhaps especially in the age of the Web, library catalogs are important sources of information.  The RedLightGreen catalog will be aimed at undergraduates, who we learned are eager to get materials from libraries, especially if one can do so conveniently, quickly, and when they have a lot of the stuff we love about the Web -- the apparent simplicity of google's search interface, having stuff sent to your door.  It's been a long time since I've been an undergrad and I grew up loving libraries and work hundreds of meters from really fine library collections -- and yet I rarely step into libraries these days.  (Not quite true, I recently went to the Berkeley Public Library to pick up the Fodor's Guide to DC....the local public libraries are great for giving me access to books that I find useful but don't want to buy.)  I instead turn to the Web and if I can satisfy my need for information by looking it up on my computer then I'm pleased.  (I've talked about this theme before on my blog....)

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