This is the kind of thing that the "network effect" is supposed to
correct for. A few people will get things wrong, but over time a larger
portion will get it right. Because they are more numerous, the correct
entries will have a higher page rank, as it were. The incorrect entries
will sink into oblivion...we hope!
Even with authority control, our library catalog has a lot of incorrect
headings. They don't really seem to sink into oblivion in your typical
OPAC.
"Why are there 3 name entries for Ernest Hemingway?"
"Well, um. Gee, Virgina, how much time do you have?"
:)
*-Steven Harris
>>> Janet Hill <Janet.Hill_at_COLORADO.EDU> 1/25/2008 11:43:46 am >>>
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 - 16:38:50 EST