may 1996 Wire article re: indexing the net -Forwarded

[KAREN SCHNEIDER]

I am forwarding this from Autocat, with the author's permission.  I think
Jack makes a very good point.

Karen G. Schneider
schneider.karen at epamail.epa.gov

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Date:         Tue, 16 Apr 1996 09:53:12 -0400
Reply-To: OCLC Internet Cataloging project <INTERCAT at oclc.org>
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From: Jack Stewart <stewart at MIK.UKY.EDU>
Subject:      Re: may 1996 Wire article re: indexing the net
To: Multiple recipients of list INTERCAT <INTERCAT at oclc.org>
In-Reply-To:  <Pine.PMDF.3.91.960416080521.1080054957A-100000 at vms.csd.mu.edu>

Hello, everyone!

I've lurked for long enough!

I'm not sure what preparation Steve Steinberg did for his article in the
May 1996 issue of Wired, but to me it seemed to completely ignore years of
electronic information seeking behavior studies (i.e., OPAC use studies)
and cataloging and classification studies.  One statement in particular,
which appears on p. 174 of Steinberg's article, was originally made years
ago in at least one article which, of course, I cannot remember, but I
will find when I prepare my letter to the editor:

"Organizing knowledge with a keyword index is less like a universal
library than like a giant, Burroughs-style cut-up poem.  Pages become
organized together for no reason other than random confluence of words.
While indexes solve the problems of subjectivity and scale that plague
classification schemes, they don't impose enough order.  The more I tried
to use Inktomi, the more I realized that operating just on words is too
low-level.  There needs to be something in between."

Is it me, or does this assertion completely ignore the fact that this is
one of *the* fundamental reasons why libraries still apply LCSH, Sears,
etc., to the bibliographic records in their OPACs?

I also find it particularly vexing that he posits himself as having
"discovered" this information, which Library Science (if not several other
related disciplines) "discovered" several years ago through OPAC use
studies.

Sorry for my rant!

Jack

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Jack Stewart
Public Services Coordinator   Phone: (606) 257-7743
Library Microlabs             FAX: (606) 257-8379
University of Kentucky

*Your FRIENDLY neighborhood information professional*
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