Lecture October 9

Information.cont. - 9 October 2002

Overview of Lecture:

1. review of earlier information retrieval technologies: in the oral, chirographic and typographic eras

2. continuation of the case study of the printing press

3. the case study of the library
- How was the analog library organized?
- How is the hybrid analog/digital library organized? (Oct. 2 handout)
-What effects has the analog Library had on society? What is changing?

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2. Effect of the Printing Press:

- in the way we processed information

o reliance on different sense: sight in stead of sound (eyes over ears)
o we became “linear thinkers” because of the way the text was presented (left to right—each letter following from the one before
o read in silence—our own private space

- in our social, economic and political systems:
- individual reading meant individual interpretations of material – less reliance on “authorities” – rise of Protestant religions in reaction against Catholicism
- people learned to think and act for themselves—growth of democracies (“one person, one vote”)
- individual ideas became part of one’s private property – (emergence of rules against plagiarism)
- schools develop so that everyone can become literate – growth of education professionals
- allowed for explorations of globe
- diffused knowledge to broad base of population
- rise of science, and “objective” views of the world

- one conclusion: the technology of the printing press shows how powerful “technics” can be…

(refer back to Postman’s ideas of “technopoly”—he emphasized the “clock”; others emphasize the “printing press”)


3. How did the traditional Library organize information for us?


Analog days:
3 sets of cards--search by author,title, or subject heading

(based on Library of Congress Headings consistent across all N.A. libraries)

Where did “subject” categorization come from?

Ancients attempted to categorize ALL knowledge.

- See Ramus as example of 16 century categorization scheme

- See the categorization of the Encyclopedia Britannica

 

Online version (2000)
www.britannica.com

8 Categories

Science
Society
Art
Technology
Religion
History
Philosophy
Mathematics

What effect did the analog library have on society’s values?

- as an institution stands for idea of free, universal access to books, newspapers and periodicals (some stored on microform); publicly supported institution
- community center – providing social environment for those who “read”
- librarians took on responsibility of defending free speech, promoting literacy, etc.
- librarians provide a service: helping others with their information retrieval needs


How does the hybrid analog/digital Library organize information for us?

- Case study of York’s library set-up: how can you search the

Library “Holdings”?

Stack Holdings
virtual holdings
Look under Catalogue Look under eresources

 

CATALOGUE:

author, title, subject + keyword + call number

Keywords:
Need to use Logical Operators to relate terms (from Catalogue help page):

and both keywords are present
women and Shakespeare
adj words must be next to each other
anorexia adj nervosa
or ‘anorexia nervosa’
or either keyword
labor or labour
Parentheses complex keyword search
(jazz or ragtime) and (music adj analysis)
Truncation retrieves records with varying endings
forest$ retrieves forest, forests, forestry, forestation, etc.
wildcard substitutes for a single character
wom?n retrieves woman and women

Strategy --> When searching on Yorkline combine “subject” with “keyword” searches

- examples of searches

- What has changed from analog to digital library?

- more accessibility to more information. But you have to learn more retrieval techniques!
- private control of some of the information (problems with private ownership of databases - cost + limited access)
- less focus on physical space/textbooks and professionals – lose “community orientation” and reliance on real humans?

 

 

 

 






This page last revised 9/17/02