The interesting thing about this, of course, is with LCSH too,
conventional wisdom on biggest "user error" is users searching on a more
general topic than what they actually want, not understanding the
implications of "specific entry" and LCSH.
Apparently with Google too, while there's no controlled vocabularly in
operation so "specific entry" isn't exactly relevant, you are often best
served by being more specific with your search, rather than searching
with language more general than what you really want.
Jonathan
B.G. Sloan wrote:
> As I noted in another post to the list, Martha Yee's REAL question was very specific: "is bread bad for coots?" But then she proceeds to query Google with the very generic "what do coots eat?" I think you'd be hard pressed to find the answer to the "is bread bad" question in the results to a "what do coots eat" question. Most results dealing with what coots eat discuss the coot's natural diet, of which bread doesn't seem a part. :-)
>
> Yee also says: "When I got home, I typed in to Google's famous search box 'what do coots eat?' The reply that came back was a web site entitled 'What do eagles eat?''"
>
> That made me think that there was only one match to Yee's search ("the" reply) titled "What do eagles eat?" When I tried the search repeatedly I couldn't find a similar example until the fourth page of results. It was titled "What do bald eagles eat?" I think it's kinda odd to use an example that doesn't even show up until the fourth page of results.
>
> Bernie Sloan
>
> Geoff Sinclair <geoffs_at_NIPISSINGU.CA> wrote:
> Wikipedia tells us that coots "are omnivorous, eating plant material,
> insects, fish, and other aquatic animals". [The 10-second answer]
>
> >From _Ducks, Geese, & Swans of North America_, I see that coots are
> "mainly vegetable feeders, and are particularly fond of wild celery".
> [The 10-minute answer]
>
> Which one is the better answer? I have no idea. In WorldCat, various
> editions had the LCSH subjects: Waterfowl -- North America, Birds --
> North America, and Anatidae.
>
> Advantage: Wikipedia
> -- it doesn't require its users to imagine the sort of work that would
> likely contain the information that will meet their needs
> -- it's faster
> -- I didn't even need to know that coots were waterfowl, let alone that
> they are in the family Anatidae (more probably, Rallidae, as both
> Wikipedia and _Ducks, Geese, & Swans of North America_ assert)
>
> Advantage: WorldCat
> -- wild celery is probably a better answer. Mmmm, wild celery.
>
> Geoff
>
> --
> Geoff Sinclair
> Manager of Technical Services
> Education Centre Library, Nipissing University / Canadore College
> Tel: 705-474-3450 x4439
> E-mail: geoffs_at_nipissingu.ca
> Web: http://www.eclibrary.ca
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
> Nipissing University Ranks #1 in Maclean's University Graduate Survey
>
>
>
> Martha Yee wrote:
>
>> I know this is asking for trouble, but I can't resist sharing my latest
>> Google adventure with you all. My husband and I were feeding stale bread to
>> some coots on Echo Park Lake (in a neighborhood park near our house), when I
>> was suddenly conscience-stricken at the realization that I didn't actually
>> know if stale bread was good for coots. When I got home, I typed in to
>> Google's famous search box "what do coots eat?" The reply that came back
>> was a web site entitled "What do eagles eat?" In the list of eagle edibles
>> was coots.
>>
>> In LCSH, the heading Coots--Food would give you perfect recall and precision
>> for monographs wholly about what coots eat, if there were any. If this
>> society placed a high value on universal employment (which it clearly
>> doesn't), the heading Coots-Food would also bring up journal articles and
>> papers that were wholly about what coots eat. We could even imagine a
>> future in which correct RDF coding might allow a computer to translate the
>> heading for a user who couldn't understand LCSH-ese into "food that coots
>> eat."
>>
>> Just saying...
>>
>> Martha
>>
>> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>>
>> Martha M. Yee
>> Cataloging Supervisor
>> UCLA Film & Television Archive
>> 1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
>> Los Angeles, CA 90038-2616
>> 323-462-4921 x27
>> 323-469-9055 (fax)
>> myee_at_ucla.edu (Email at work)
>>
>> Campus mail:
>> 302 E. Melnitz
>> 132306
>>
>> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>>
>>
>> "You have a dollar. I have a dollar. We swap. Now you have my dollar and I
>> have your dollar. We are not better off. You have an idea. I have an idea.
>> We swap. Now you have two ideas and I have two ideas. Both are richer. When
>> you gave, you have. What I got, you did not lose. That’s cooperation"—Jimmy
>> Durante quoted in Schnozzola, by Gene Fowler, 1951, p. 207-208.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Tue Jan 29 2008 - 16:37:00 EST