Laurabelle's Blog

Last week, a patron wrote in via the feedback form about the necessity for a catalog record that would approximate the omniscient librarian, who can place a book in one's hand that one has hardly even known one wanted. This patron seemed to think that it was possible to make such a perfect catalog record, so I replied:

Regarding better descriptions in cataloging records, every cataloger in the world would love to know how to create the perfect catalog record. Unfortunately, every catalog record is the creation of some person, a cataloger, who at the point of creation must attempt to predict the information needs which would be filled by the cataloged item and then construct a record that will make it findable by everyone who might need it! Cataloging is a fascinating but daunting task (which is why I am not a cataloger).

I hope that this helps to explain why book descriptions are so vague, and why making them better is a matter involving the theory of knowledge organization, and not merely a brute consumption of time (although many PhD theses have consumed many hours in the search of a solution to exactly the problem you describe of automating the librarian). Every academic discipline has at least one problem, the solution of which is an instant PhD; this is one instant PhD of information science! If this problem interests you, I encourage you strongly to consider pursuing a degree in information science.

Everyone would love for you to solve this problem for us and for all your fellow patrons!

It would be lovely to know that I had inspired a fellow information scientist, but I may be the victim of too much wishful thinking.