This is posted without knowledge of the author
>Subject:
Are indexers and cataloguers hot?
Date:
Thu, 5 Mar 1998 13:08:27 -0600
From:
Sanda Erdelez
>From Montague Institute of Knowledge Management recent issue of e-journal:
http://www.montague.com/le/le2982.html
"A recent article in Fortune, "How Yahoo won the Search Wars," offers an
explanation of why the Internet directory service has a market cap of
$2.8
billion. According to the article, Yahoo's success is due in part to its
strategy of using human beings to "catalog" or assign subject categories
to
the Web sites in the database (its rivals use only computer programs).
The
article doesn't say how much Yahoo's "Chief Ontologist" (head cataloger)
makes, but it's probably more than the head of cataloging at the local
public or academic library.
Library catalogers - people with special training in assigning subjects,
call numbers, and other "meta information" to books - are now poised to
make a comeback. In the pre-automation days, when card catalog cards
were
typed by hand, catalogers were essential to the task of organizing the
library collection. Then, as computers assumed the task of printing
catalog
cards (and eventually replacing them), the role of professional
catalogers
has evolved from assigning subject headings to managing a semi-clerical
function in which paraprofessionals locate and process catalog card copy
prepared by the Library of Congress or another library.
Today, many knowledge managers are beginning to realize that human
catalogers and indexers are needed to complement the capabilities of
search
engines in helping users navigate the World Wide Web. Can they be
recruited
from the ranks of library catalogers? Perhaps, but it's interesting to
note
that although Yahoo staff considered the library model of
classification,
they chose not to use it. Nevertheless, as more librarians are trained
in
knowledge management, they are likely to play a larger role in
developing
and applying classification schemes."