Hi Paul/
Thanks for posting your query to the E-Lib list.
> Subject: Automated indexing or manual cataloguing...?
> [snip]
>Others point to the emergence of powerful
> tools such as Autonomy (http://www.autonomy.com/, >discussed in a
> recent Wired article at
>http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/autonomy.html), >and argue that we
>won't need to index/catalogue at all; these tools will simply >extract meaning from the mass of data we pump into them. >Whilst it does appear that Autonomy et al become better as >their data pool grows, just how good can
>they become...?
>I'd be interested in any thoughts people have on this,
[snip]
While I believe that there is benefit in adopting or adapting our traditional and conventional methods of control for/to digital resources, I have concluded that we need to better utilize the
capabilities and potential of the digital medium.
For background on my views you may wish to read my
article from _D-Lib Magazine_ published a few years ago
entitled: _Hand-Made in Iowa: Organizing the Web Along the Lincoln Highway_. In it I explore a number of issues relating to Web acces and control.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february97/02mckiernan.html
More recently, I conjectured a bit further in an article in
the _Journal of Internet Cataloging_ entitled
"Points of View: Conventional and 'Neo-Conventional' Access and Navigation in Digital Collections" in _Journal of Internet Cataloging_ 2(1) (1999): 23-41.
Here I profile a number of alternative organizational technologies including automated categorization
using Kohonen self-organizing maps and information visualization techniques, among many others
Two of my clearinghouses which profile research, projects and products relating to these areas will be of interest:
_Project Aristotle(sm): Automated Categorization of Web Resources_
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/Aristotle.htm
and
_The Big Picture(sm): Visual Browing in Web and non-Web Databases_
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/BigPic.htm
as well may be some of my other projects
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/Projects.htm
BTW: You may be interested in a new model of access
and navigation which I propose in my JIC article. I call it SnowCap(sm) which is acronym for _Summary Navigable Ontologically-Wrapped Conceptual Aboutness Package_ [:-)]
[I hope the full name entices you and list members to read it. *I do have a limited number of off-prints and would be glad to send to interested parties as supplies last*]
Best of Luck with your study on the topic.
/Gerry McKiernan
Theoretical Librarian
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011
[log in to unmask]
"The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It"
Alan Kay
c: IR List ; E-Lib List
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