When I first went to NLM in 1983, I was shown a prototype for an
automated indexing system that the developers confidently predicted
would be replacing human indexers within five years or so. Over the
ensuing two decades plus, NLM has put lots of money, time and energy
into this and the current version does a pretty decent job for what it's
intended to do -- but it still functions as an assistant to humans not a
replacement. I can see no theoretical reason that we won't eventually
have an AI system that can replace a human cataloger or indexer, but I
wouldn't want to speculate on the time frame although my guess is that
it's not imminent.
T. Scott Plutchak
Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham
tscott_at_uab.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Karen Coyle
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 4:52 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Resignation
Rinne, Nathan (ESC) wrote:
>
> I take it whatever people think though, no one is going to claim such
> software will produce subject headings like...
>
According to NLM, they have an 'expert' system that suggests MeSH
subject headings to their catalogers as a way to speed things up. I
don't know if they have written about it (can't see anything on their
pages). The person who spoke (at the LoC meeting on Future of Bib
Control in June) said that the machine gives the same suggestion as a
human about 60% of the time. But it's not just whether a machine can
produce the same heading as a human, but also whether a machine can do
some of the work to save a human's time. NLM says yes to the latter, and
claims it has saved them $$$.
kc
--
-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant kcoyle_at_kcoyle.net
http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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Received on Thu Aug 30 2007 - 18:00:24 EDT