Karen Coyle writes,
>
> ... I've just
> completed a study of cross-catalog searching -- catalogs with full MARC
> records and AACR2 rules -- that got results that bordered on random. The
> factors that affected results were many...
> ... differences in index choices, differences in search methods...
> ... there are so many factors that go into resource discovery
> that we can't put all of our eggs into the metadata basket.
> ... At some point, we need to quit fine-tuning the
> metadata and get on to the act of discovery, which has some interesting
> problems of its own.
True. We have a task group in Germany trying to formulate recommendations
for OPAC indexing: what elements to index in what ways. Clearly, Full-text
searching is neither feasible nor would it be satisfying. But then what?
For a start:
Who's got a good description of name indexing, either algorithmic or
just the general requirements for it?
One may then start looking at what kinds of inconsistencies in the data
can be coped with by particular methods of indexing.
B.E.
Bernhard Eversberg
Universitaetsbibliothek, Postf. 3329,
D-38023 Braunschweig, Germany
Tel. +49 531 391-5026 , -5011 , FAX -5836
e-mail [log in to unmask]
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