I'm catching up on mail in a batch, and have noticed three separate
instances in today's mail of the use of "peak" (from three different lists
and three different people, one of which is recreational, and the other two
of which are professional) when what is meant is "peek". And so, with all
the other questions I ask myself, I wonder about keyword searching and
authority control when people.
write "fit of peek" (when it should be pique)
or write that someone is "peeking" too soon (when they mean peak)
or that they want to have a "pique" at the answers (when they mean peek).
Of course, I also wonder about the tyranny of spell checkers which can
sometimes take the word you MEANT and substitute something else.
English is a challenging language in this regard (though of course pique is
originally French), so that all of the tact/tack, duct/duck, eek/eke,
procede/proceed can be confounding.
Some systems are helpful (e.g. "did you mean proceed?"), but there's a limit
to how helpful they can be.
WHICH REMINDS ME of a peculiar note I got from YouTube yesterday. I
searched "Schwomeyer and Sladky, and the page of results that came up was
labeled "items 1-7 of about 7" ABOUT seven? Surely a machine ought to be
able to count? (and unfortunately, Schwomeyer and Sladky's Yankee Polka OSP
wasn't there).
Janet Swan Hill, Professor
Associate Director for Technical Services
University of Colorado Libraries, CB184
Boulder, CO 80309
janet.hill_at_colorado.edu
*****
Tradition is the handing-on of Fire, and not the worship of Ashes.
- Gustav Mahler
You can peak at my profile
Received on Fri Jan 25 2008 - 13:45:34 EST