> -----Original Message-----
> Ted P Gemberling wrote:
> > too. Actually, in some ways getting no hits is a useful thing. It's
> > the "real world." It shows you've gone down one blind alley
> and need
> > to try another path.
> It's a blind alley only if we are unable to provide exits
> from it. You seem to be suggesting that we should
> intentionally refrain from automatically providing
> alternatives in a zero-hit search--that is, intentionally
> frustrate the user--because it will be of educational value
> to the user.
>
> That's not really what you're suggesting, is it?
Maybe what Ted's saying is that it *can* be useful to know that the
library you're searching actually doesn't have anything on, say, humane
raccoon removal (another story). I just did a keyword search on this in
my local PL catalog, and when the system found nothing with humane AND
raccoon AND removal, it changed the search to humane OR raccoon OR
removal, and gave me 328 hits. Some of which might be useful, but I'm
not going to wade through them all. I'd rather be given the option to
re-try my search in Google, or Amazon, another local library, etc. Back
to moving beyond "books we own" catalogs.
Kathy Mitchell
Cataloger, Jeffcat
Jeffco Public Schools
1829 Denver West Dr.
Golden, CO 80401
303/982-5934
kaamitch_at_jeffco.k12.co.us
Received on Tue Aug 07 2007 - 14:02:12 EDT