I intended to resist the temptation to jump into this thread, but I felt
I had to take issue with Bernhard's summary:
>Summing up:
>1. Quality collection building and metadata production is becoming
unsustainable.
>2. Metadata-free information seeking is highly popular.
>3. Search has become a pervasive activity in which everyone
considers themselves experts in no need of learning.
I can buy Number 3.
Number 2 is a little backward, maybe it should read "Free metadata" or
"Hidden metadata" information seeking is highly popular. Just because
you don't SEE metadata doesn't mean it's not there. Most web sites have
it even if only <title></title> and/or the stuff Frontpage throws in,
many have much more DC labels, etc. to help them leverage search tools
and vice versa. The fact that this self-generate and hidden doesn't
mean it doesn't exist or isn't used.
Number 1 is the real snake in the grass. It seems to me that this is a
dubious assumption masquerading as fact. I shouldn't start on
"sustainability" but I will anyway: anything is sustainable if you are
prepared to devote enough resources to it. Take, for example, minting
pennies, the copper in them is worth more than $0.01 and that doesn't
count the minting, shipping etc. You can call that unsustainable, but
we're still minting! That we need to leverage all our tools and brains
to improve the efficiency of quality collection building and metadata
use is clear. Perhaps manual or labor-intensive metadata production is
unsustainable might be realistic, but say that "quality" is
unsustainable is long leap.
Another interesting piece of information economics is the attitude
toward the "value" of metadata. Consider OCLC's ongoing plans to
re-write their data licensing. All that metadata was worthless until it
wasn't perceived as "free", now, suddenly, it seems to have acquired
"value". Go figure!
JJ
**Views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent those of
the Queens Library.**
Jane Jacobs
Asst. Coord., Catalog Division
Queens Borough Public Library NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
89-11 Merrick Blvd.
Jamaica, NY 11432
tel.: (718) 990-0804
e-mail: Jane.W.Jacobs_at_queenslibrary.org
FAX. (718) 990-8566
Received on Tue Feb 24 2009 - 09:16:50 EST