| Introduction
Page 14
Leveraging
Complexity
Traditional
libraries have been simple. They were designed for simple inquiries
a limited volume of books, films, articles and periodicals. No one
tried to mess around with the database and authors never thought
of changing how wrote so their material would be easier to find
for library users.
In the
past, writer’s works were indexed by title, subject or the
author’s name. With the fantastic growth of books and documents
online however, a search for title and subject would still leave
you with thousands of documents to wade through. As a searcher or
consumer you need something more precise and much faster and you
want a little help getting to the highest quality documents. In
a library, there is no “quality” criterion in the index.
Web search engines have worked all this out and come up with an
indexing system that helps searchers get to the best documents and
sites -- what they’re really after.
To get
the most from libraries, you often have to ask the librarian to
find things for you. Somehow, their index isn’t user friendly.
Web search engines however, compete for users, so being easy to
use is critical for their continued use by consumers. Library search
engines wouldn’t last a day in the open marketplace because
they can’t deliver the highest quality document fast enough.
They would be dealing with an unruly collection of constantly changing
documents, many of which are deceptive in content and presentation.
Web indexes have to deal with a vibrant yet sometimes surly, groups
of documents that are actually not shy at all about being discovered.
That may be their only purpose.
So if you
have romantic notions about the sanctity of the formal library past,
you should be glad to relinquish them now. You’ll be freed
of the stuffy formal vocabulary that was choking your creative voice,
and learn a new set of words that are music to reader’s ears
and minds.
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