Organizing Web Information

[Laura B. Cohen]

One point that I think should be added to this discussion
is the fact that there is rarely such a thing as a static
Web page. Many Web pages evolve as a matter of course, and in
fact can be expected to change in character after the time they will
have been "cataloged". We are attempting to fit a cataloging
system meant for static entities (i.e., journals, books), to
something that is always changing. It's not just a question
of whether the Web page exists or doesn't exist, but of
how it changes over time.

Another problem I see with this discussion is that some
participants seem to be saying that use of a controlled
vocabulary is the only viable way of getting at the information 
stored in computer databases. While controlled vocabularies 
certainly do retrieve highly relevant hits (given a
well constructed search), research shows that free text
searching can be even more useful in certain of the
disciplines such as humanities. There are also certain
records for which a controlled vocabulary is less than
useful--in a search for a proper name, or a unique
scientific term, for example. What I'd like to see on
the Net is better search engines, with better field searching
and better relevancy ratings. There are plenty of
computer databases in existence right now for which
there is little or no controlled vocabulary, yet
people are able to do successful searches on them
with powerful search engines. Arts & Humanities
Search on DIALOG comes to mind. 

I see the Internet as one (currently) not very large 
computer database, and I think it would be helpful 
to look at it more in terms of search engine power rather 
than the cataloging of a slippery, ever-changing mass of records. 

Laura Cohen

          Laura B. Cohen
          Network Services Librarian
          University Libraries UL-140
          University at Albany   
          Albany, New York  12222          LCOHEN at CNSVAX.ALBANY.EDU