“Beta” is a word I used to associate with a snobby high-school sorority, but, thanks to Google and some time spent learning Greek, the word now has other connotations. I was happy to read this over at It’s All Good, posted by Alane Wilson,
One piece of advice George, Cathy and I pass along to people when we do presentations is “go beta.” By this we mean do what Google does, and try new things out, in public, live, with real people. Instead, many libraries still appear to be keeping things under wraps, waiting until everything is Perfect, planning for the “Rare Event” (as Marshall Keyes called it at a presentation I attended a while back).
Beta projects are helpful when it’s hard to do usability testing before a new service is launched, or when you can’t really judge a product or service without giving the patrons a chance to dig into it in a real, non-simulated environment (isn’t that almost everything?).
You can find a beta project on our website in the form of the SFX Version 3 menu. We haven’t switched over to v. 3 quite yet, but we have links to it in Library Lit. When we do switch over, there will be a new “Advanced (Beta)” section on the menu, offering some new–and fairly untested–services. The plan is to offer them throughout the summer and then evaluate before the fall semester starts.
Other beta projects: IM reference (we’re calling it a pilot–same difference) and reserves via Blackboard (another pilot). Maybe in the future, wikis.