[303] in Information Retrieval
Re: DISCUSSION TOPIC: What is the online equivalent to the MEH?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ray Charbonneau)
Thu Apr 18 11:36:24 1996
To: elibdev@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 17 Apr 1996 12:55:45 EDT."
<9604171655.AA08267@macfadden.MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 11:34:12 EDT
From: "Ray Charbonneau" <rcharbon@MIT.EDU>
Because they need the tool to work with information they access from the
library. For example, Dewey Library has made the Excel spreadsheet
available to work with one of the databases mounted on a public PC.
> I don't see why libraries would get into purchasing these kinds
> of software for users any more than they would get into purchasing
> word processing software, graphics software, presentation software,
> spreadsheet software, and so forth.
There are two types of users :-). One type is trying to learn the
subject. The other type may learn something in passing, but is mainly
concerned with applying the knowledge that someone else has gathered
to a project they are working on.
Libraries have supported both kinds of users. In the past, a user would
use the same type of resource (a 'book') to perform both functions.
> The purpose of a handbook, style guide, or table is to serve as
> a resource which helps people to learn and incorporate knowledge.
> This is much more consistent with the mission of libraries than
> providing software which performs the tasks *for* people.
In the brave new world, the user will be sitting at his terminal
accessing what he needs without necessarily going to the library at all.
Just as calculators have become useful enough to replace log tables,
someday (certainly not today) grammar checkers may become useful enough
to correct work for people, and then they will be used, whether
libraries provide them or not.
Libraries don't provide calculators because they are so useful and cheap
that there's no need. A working grammar checker would fit into the same
catagory.
And, there's no reason for a library to provide the grammar checker, but
there is also no reason for a library to provide a style manual either.
They're both just software that can be made available over the net by anyone.
The _real_ question is 'what function will the Library of the Future
provide?'. Currently, libraries are depositories of resources and
providers of guidance in finding what you need from those resources.
Once everything is online, the depository function becomes secondary,
except for archival reasons. What we will find out as time goes by, and
what would be very useful to know now, is how the guidance function will
evolve. However, since the data will be accessed remotely,
for the guidance to be useful, it too will have to be available remotely.
> >Libraries have traditionally stocked reference tools such as the
> >Modern English Usage Handbook, Style Guides, Lists of Mathematical
> >Tables, Dictionaries, etc. On the other hand, Libraries have never
> >suggested that if you bring your term paper in, they'll edit it for
> >grammar.
> >
> >I'd like this list's thoughts on what the electronic cognate of such
> >reference tools might be. Should Libraries only concern themselves
> >with online versions of, say, the _Modern English Handbook_ or would
> >it be correct for online libraries to _also_ offer grammar checkers.
> >Would the online cognate of a handbook of math tables be a calculator
> >program? Are grammar checkers and calculators not reference tools at
> >all but services more properly left for IS folk?
-------------
Ray Charbonneau | MIT Library Systems
-------------
Somerville (MA) Road Runners:
http://web.mit.edu/rcharbon/Public/www/srr.html
