[Sigia-l] Chronological filing as a type of classification system

[David R. Austen]

Hello, Vivian, and all:

(I've taken the liberty of creating a "cousin thread" so I can use the
library example but then also veer off your original tack somewhat.
With impunity, I hope. Join me please!)

Let's accept and embrace the reality of chronological classification;
it fits what people often do on their own. Saving Web bookmarks all in
the same folder is one good example. It's quick and it is a foolproof
system.

(But of little utility, normally. Do any Web browsers or similar tools
allow users to search using a string in the Web page title?)

This is analogous to stacking papers on a table in my office all day
long.

This is also analogous to saving all new files to the Windows folder
called "My Documents."

Another analogy is the New Books table in Borders, or your library.

I'm thinking of a more formal model for the organization of
information by time (creation/change date) for people who are in a
great hurry. There is no reason to encourage this behaviour by
clients, but realistically, this might be the only system some people
use--or the system they would use if it were a formal first stage of a
fine system of storage and retrieval. Is there a tool you know of that
does this really well? A system that one of you uses already?

If so, it could often be the first tool (system) people would use for
documents. We'd use it the way we use those trays and baskets of paper
in my office labelled "To be Filed."


Thoughts? Comments? Ideas? Warnings?


Best regards,


David Austen



Wednesday, July 24, 2002, 12:07:02 PM, you wrote:
VB> Received this blurb from another group but thought this crowd might
VB> enjoy pondering this unique user experience totally set in the physical
VB> realm.

VB> ....here's a passage from _Library Relocations_, published by Book
VB> Works, London, in ... hmm, [n.d.], p. 7:

VB> "The library [The Goldsmiths Library of Economic Literature, University
VB> of London] is of importance to researchers in a variety of disciplines
VB> other than economics, and the unorthodox way it is arranged on the
VB> shelves (chronologically by year of publication, divided into subject
VB> areas established by [Prof. H.S. Foxwell, the donor of the core
VB> collection]) continues to prove stimulating. It is possible to gain an
VB> understanding of a particular period and quickly contextualise one's
VB> reading in a way that is unique. The substantial printed catalogue also
VB> reveals that the library has an unusual origin. Foxwell first conceived
VB> of the collection as a resource aimed at the provision of material for a
VB> thoroughly historical edition of Adam Smith's _Inquiry into the Nature
VB> and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_ (1776), probably the single most
VB> influential work of political economy published in Britain. So as you
VB> walk around the Goldsmiths Library, you are in a sense inside a vast
VB> scholarly edition of the book, designed at least in part to question the
VB> influence of Adam Smith and consider matters he did not. The books on
VB> the shelves can be seen as arguments, footnotes, revisions and
VB> appendices to a text that, read or unread, continues to exert
VB> considerable influence and to stand for a strain of thinking about
VB> economics, markets and society."


VB> Vivian Bliss
VB> Natural User Interface Solutions
VB> Microsoft Corp.
VB> 425.703.3212
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