Organizing Web Information

[Peter C. Gorman]

Valerie Bishop writes:

>I think that part of the reason that flyers are not collected is due to the
>difficulty in storing and preserving the item.

I think the costs of collecting and cataloging them are at least as great
an issue.

>The people who take the time to index content will be the ones to
>determine what content is important.  As you say, we can't index
>everything.

Which is the point I was trying to make - that, given the cost of making
items available (collecting, cataloging, storing, indexing), we decide that
some things are more worth the effort than others, and content is usually
the criterion. I've seen a lot of hand-wringing over the mass of material
on the net, and its presumed implications for cataloging, but libraries
have been dealing with exactly the same phenomenon in the print world with
at least some amount of success.

As for usability, I wouldn't choose to read a flyer over a book just
because it's easier to read. And even a computer screen seems easier to use
than, say, microfilm. But if you want the content, you'll use an imperfect
technology to get it.

The volatility of URLs is a very real problem, but that makes the selection
even more important. If you can only afford to maintain x URLs, you'll make
sure they're worth the effort.

>As someone has doubtless pointed out, just because one is a "grad
>student" does not mean one's web-work is worthless.  On the contrary.

My bit of rhetorical excess wasn't intended as a slur against grad students
(some of my best friends...). I didn't say that anyone's web work was
useless; only that personal home pages (including my own) are of rather
limited interest when looking for research material, and obscure more
relevant material in the dragnet indexing used by most of the current web
indexes. Sure, someone may have links to some very useful resources
attached to his or her personal pages, but the indexes should be able to
lead you to those sources directly.

PG
_______________________________
Peter C. Gorman
University of Wisconsin
General Library System
Automation Services
pcgorman at facstaff.wisc.edu