start working on your resumes...

[Nick Arnett]

At 07:06 PM 1/29/97 -0800, Lou Rosenfeld wrote:
>Did you know that computers will soon organize and index lots of stuff,
>huge "treasure troves" even?  Well, as reported in Science (see below),
>it's only a matter of time.  I guess this means we librarians should start
>considering new lines of work.  And we shouldn't be surprised, given how
>much easier it has become to find information in distributed networks such
>as the Internet...  Honestly, it's sad that in this day and age
>"respected" publications still cling to this silliness that organization
>and classification of information can be wholly automated. 

The goal of the automatic categorization products we are developing is to
automate the rote, boring work associated, so that the human minds can focus
on the creative aspects of categorization and organization. To use a tired
metaphor, the effects of this software will be like those brought by desktop
publishing: it didn't eliminate the need for designers and typesetters; it
spread knowledge of publishing technology to a much wide audience.  As a
result, there is widespread knowledge of technology and design issues -- and
much greater appreciation of the expertise required for good page design.
The same can be expected to happen with library science.  The Web is the
laser printer of desktop librarian software.

One should realize that to the librarian, the first few versions of "desktop
librarian" software will surely look crude and weak.  Similarly, the design
and typesetting capabilities in PageMaker, Quark, etc., were bastardized, so
the purists were offended.  That sort of idealism is the biggest obstacle to
collaboration between librarians and technologists.  Compromise is required
to take advantage of the new opportunities.

A book that should convince anyone of the creativity that goes into
categorization is Lakoff's "Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What
Categories Reveal about the Mind."  A major point in the book is that
empirical studies of categorization show that it is not done by simple
logical manipulation of symbols, which is the stuff of computers as well as
the classical, incorrect view of cognition and categorization.  Many aspects
of categorization are fascinatingly creative.

Nick Arnett

---------------------------------------
Verity Inc.
Connecting People with Information

Product Manager, Categorization and Visualization
408-542-2164; home office 408-369-1233; fax 408-541-1600
http://www.verity.com