On 10/03/2013 17:34, Karen Coyle wrote:
<snip>
> You have to look at the results, not just the stats. Card catalogs
> were very big in a wide variety of businesses and disciplines, not
> just in libraries. Prior to automation, many businesses that had to
> keep track of what today we would put into a database used cards.
>
> " the Bureau has actively continued the compilation of a /card
> catalogue/ of the archeological sites"
>
> " As a result, the Bureau now possesses a /card catalogue/, each card
> presenting either a brief statement of a labour event or else a
> summary of an article on a labour subject to be found in other libraries"
>
> " This Directory had its origin in a /card catalogue/ of the
> professional anthropologists of the United States and Canada, begun in
> l926"
>
>
> I do think that libraries were on the forefront of the modern
> "organization by card catalog" technology, but card-like systems had
> been in use in the early days of encyclopedias.[1] What is interesting
> about this history is how the (re-)invention of card systems in the
> early 1900's prepared us for the computer, which initially was a
> machine that processed cards more quickly than humans could and in
> more different ways.
</snip>
Good points, although the only word I searched that was specifically
library-related was "OPAC", and I opened that up with "online/electronic
catalog", which could as well refer to Sears or Amazon--or a college
catalog of courses. No matter what, the idea of "search engine(s)"
clearly rules in Google Books and by extension--theoretically of
course--also in the minds of the public.
For instance, "search engines" seems to be paired very often with
"search engine optimization" which is a very popular topic because it
makes money.
I tried similar searches in Google Trends--not with so many
variants--and found this:bit.ly/WDwAZS <http://bit.ly/WDwAZS>
The only terms that made a showing were "search engine" and "OPAC".
Interesting that "OPAC" has been so steady. And the incidence of "search
engine" has dropped dramatically since 2004. I wonder what is taking its
place? Linked data? Social search? I can't find anything in Google Trends.
--
*James Weinheimer* weinheimer.jim.l_at_gmail.com
*First Thus* http://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/
*Cooperative Cataloging Rules*
http://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/
*Cataloging Matters Podcasts*
http://blog.jweinheimer.net/p/cataloging-matters-podcasts.html
Received on Mon Mar 11 2013 - 05:11:21 EDT