Re: The next generation of discovery tools (new LJ article)

From: Eric Lease Morgan <emorgan_at_nyob>
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:28:36 -0400
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
On Mar 28, 2011, at 4:20 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:

>> So I just threw together some charts based on searches I ran in one  
>> of our Solr instances.  The query I entered is reflected in the name  
>> of the file:
>> 
>>  http://library.calstate.edu/media/htm/charts/teaching-children-autism.html
>>  http://library.calstate.edu/media/htm/charts/autism.html
>>  http://library.calstate.edu/media/htm/charts/global-warming.html
> 
> Can we just conclude that, with a few exceptions, ranking is a crapshoot?

I wouldn't go as far as "crapshoot" unless you want that particular word used out of context. Rankings such as TFIDF are very well-respected in the formal information science world. They are predicable, measurable, repeatable, mathematically sound, and very useful. The word "crapshoot" does not apply and/or the phrase "ranking is a crapshoot" needs to be qualified.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
Received on Mon Mar 28 2011 - 16:29:01 EDT