[Sigia-l] Findability

[Donna M. Fritzsche]

At 6:31 AM -0600 7/20/03, Karl Fast wrote:
>  > | [Google] may ignore externally applied meta-tags, | but they add
>>  their own meta-data, and rely on it | extensively. Maybe you've
>>  heard of it, they call it | "page rank"
>
>Yes, there are two types of metadata.
>
>The first is manually applied, or imposed.
>
>The second is derived through some algorithm.
>
>
>In my experience librarians usually don't talk about this
>distinction very much. They tend to be more interested in the
>imposed metadata and dismissive of algorithms. After all, how can
>some algorithm compete with the human brain?


Karl, I hope to some extent you are being facetious!  Since 
algorithms too are created by the human brain to serve some specific 
purpose, I find both approaches equally valid and appropriate under 
the right circumstances.  I think that it is unfortunate for 
librarians to be dismissive of algorithms just as it would be for 
someone else to be dismissive of metadata.  The key is to apply the 
right tool or set of tools under the right circumstances.

Donna