----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Hello - I am a member of VRA and I posted the note below to our ListServ yesterday. It was recommended to me by a colleague that I post it to the ARLIS ListServ as well. If anyone has the time and a good story to tell, by all means drop me an email. Thanks!! ******************* Hello all -- I am currently doing course work towards my MLIS degree at the Univ. of Missouri. This semester I am taking a class on Library Information Systems. As part of a group project, it has been requested that we compile stories regarding the implementation of Library Information Systems (LIS) in collections. We are looking for stories that convey different aspects of success and/or failure throughout the whole scope of project planning thru implementation. If anyone has any stories to share, I'd be grateful!!! Until this morning, I had just been contacting traditional book libraries, and then it dawned on me that I had quite a resource in the VRA right at my fingertips! And, it would be wonderful to have perspectives from different types of collections. We are looking for stories from the perspectives of collections AND vendors. An example of a story of poor planning -- a computer system had been purchased for a University and everything seemed to be falling into place according to plan. The bids came back and the prices were approved, the purchase was made, there was space for the system. Everyone was excited as this was going to be a huge improvement. On the day of delivery, they got the equipment to the building only to realize that nobody had ever bothered to consider the dimensions of it. It was larger than the biggest door into the building, so the door frame had to be ripped out. $15,000 later (in avoidable construction costs had this one detail been considered), the computer equipment was in place and ready to use! A sense of humor in these tales never hurts...and unfortunately, the more humorous usually have to do with some oversight or failure. The laughs come after the fact. Anyway, if you all have any stories you'd like to share or any questions about the assignment, please email them to me at [log in to unmask] Names of people and institutions will not be shared. All stories will be anonymous. These stories will then appear on a meta-site that was developed by an earlier section of this class entitled "Project LIS." It is hoped that by sharing these anecdotes, others might not repeat our mistakes! Or they might replicate our successes! Thank you so much. Beth -- Beth Kopine Curator of Visual Resources University of Missouri-Columbia Dept. of Art History and Archaeology 109 Pickard Hall Columbia, MO 65211 e-mail:[log in to unmask] phone: 573/882-6712 fax: 573/884-5269 __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]