Selection Power and Selection Labor - Human Information Retrieval - page 20

Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens
(public author and
private individual)

Genus

Difference

public

not public

Mark Twain
(author)

Samuel Clemens
(private individual)

Species

Figure 2.1
Example of a genus-species relation.

r algorithmic and computer-conducted transformations on texts, where
the searcher is required to eliminate false recalls and retrieve all relevant
instances, both processes complicated by inevitable inconsistencies in the
language of discourse; or
r human assignment of index terms and references to sections of dis-
course, for interpretation by the searcher.

At each stage, the searcher's selection power increases, her/his labor
decreases, and the description labor and processes (either transferred to
technology or embodied in a human indexer) increase.
Different forms of graphic representation—pictorial, handwritten, or
printed—offer different possibilities for algorithmic transformation (see
figure 2.2). Curiously, the standard form of computer representation of
written language (for instance, ASCII code, which appears more finished
and retains less specific production traces than handwriting) is more ame-
nable to algorithmic transformation because the process (keyboarding) is
less congealed in the product, as storage in the form of computer memory.
Further transformation into more fully graphic representation—rather
than directly encoded representation embodied in different file formats—
would require a more fully congealed process and would complicate
algorithmic transformations.
Thus, selection power operates effectively for an aspect of informa-
tion retrieval practice often considered separately from other aspects,