recent discussion of WWW cataloging?

[tweland at mm.com]

JQ Johnson wrote "...my impression is that there's a trend away from global 
subject catalogs of the web that are human mediated and informed by the kinds of
knowledge librarians bring to the cataloging effort.  For example,
Yahoo..." 

I would agree that the majority of web indexes are of the automated Yahoo 
variety, and I would argue that all of them are poor indexing tools.  I have 
used most, and not one would last a day in a library.  Patrons would be so 
frustrated with the number of false hits that they would stop using the index.

On the other hand, OCLC is attempting to bring a more traditional and 
disciplined approach to indexing the Internet.  Their WebFirst product indexes 
and abstracts Internet resources.  The initial pages are gathered using an 
automated search mechanism.  Worth while sites are sent on to human beings who 
review the content and pass on worthy resources to an abstractor and indexer 
that assigns subject headings and an abstract.  A demo of the system can bee 
viewed at OCLC's web server: http://www.oclc.org/

Other librarians, like myself, are designing subject specific indexes of 
Internet resources.  See my Internet Directory of Literacy and Adult Education 
Resources located at the National Institute for Literacy: 
http//novel.nifl.gov/litdir/eland.htm.  It is currently being mounted and should 
be fully operational by Oct. 20, 1995.

It is my contention that either librarians get involved and index the Internet, 
or we will be stuck once again using inferior indexes designed by those who do 
not understand how people search for and use information.  (I also think we 
should get involved and produce good indexes to print resources for the 80% of 
the world's knowledge that H.W. Wilson et. al. doesn't bother to index, and 
therefore we don't see fit to collect.)

Tom Eland, Librarian
Minneapolis Community College Library
tweland at mm.com