Organizing Web Information

[Temple Hoff]

Laura Cohen wrote:
>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.

I couldn't agree more.  I fact I think I said virtually the same thing in an earlier post 
for which I receive great, although highly poetic, condemnation.  I wonder if you will 
receive as much or as colorful objection.  

>From the conversion that has formed around this issue, I see two main problems that should 
be addressed by greater minds than I.

First, I think it would be helpful to take a step back and try to determine what it is that 
libraries want, expect, and can contribute to the Internet.  Though it may seem odvious, it 
maybe helpful to have it state if just for this thread.  Not being a librarian, I will leave 
this to others.  It would also be helpful to keep things in perspective.  The Interent, or 
the Web, is not a library.  There are many other groups that use, contribute to, and control 
aspects of it.  It is not entirely the province of librarians, and it maybe helpful if 
librarians defined what aspects of the information superhighway they will service and to 
what extent.  An example that comes to mind is MUDs.  None of the game players I know need 
the help of a librarian to find there game spots on the web (and none of the librarians I 
know would know where to look for them.)  

The other side of this coin is the search engines themselves.  I don't really know alot 
about the indexing and catologing and soforth that companies like Yahoo, Lycos, and Alta 
Vista use, but I hope they have librarians to help guide the programmers in developing these 
things.

We need to define the role of libraries (library science) on the Web, not just the role of 
the Web in our libraries.

Second, the field of library science, as far as I can see, needs a major overhaul.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the librarians out there with the skills to even 
access this list and read this post, even with the help of their local techie, are in the 
extreme minority among librarians.  Maybe all librarians don't need vast tehcnical skills.  
There are, of course, destictions between librarians now, i.e. academic and public 
librarians.  Maybe a larger division of the profession is needed.  Maybe a branch of library 
sciences should be seperated from the majority of those in the field to distiguish those 
professionals with electronic information management skills from those with traditional 
library skills.  These are the people we need guiding the search engine developers.   
-- 
Temple Hoff                  E-Mail:temhof at mohave.lib.az.us                 
Library Services Coordinator           Phone:(520) 692-5703  
Mohave County Library District           Fax:(520) 692-5788