[WEB4LIB] Re: In defense of stupid users

[Jimm Wetherbee]

Patricia,

| 
| That was what I understood from the discussion, but the point I hoped to
| make was that tools either exist or are in development to make are
| various information environments truly seemless. Point two should have
| been "what can we do to help with both training and aiding the move toward
| the seemless?"
[--jimm replies] That might take some doing.  I have trouble seeing either
online catalogs or commercial databases working natively in say XML.  I will
be interested in what lessons can be learned from Google Scholar and its
full text project.

Even apart from that ambition, there are things that can be done.  One can
present a simple interface with powerful.  For instance, if I am looking for
a book on John Adams, why shouldn't I get the same results from "President
John Adams" as "Adams, John, 1735-1826?"  If one's authorities are in place
(and admittedly I don't think ours are) such a thing should be possible.

--jimm



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