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?
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