Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
that the description process was strongly syntactic, although conducted
by human labor rather than by machine, with some semantic interven-
tion. The storage constraints of the technologies compel the production
of descriptions more concise than the objects described. Technologies also
have to be used in a primarily nondeterministic mode with continuous
human intervention, particularly for construction rather than printing
of indexes. Other information systems of the time (most obviously the
construction of the
British Museum Catalog
) involved substantial human
semantic intervention in the making and listing of descriptions—of mate-
rial by and about significant authors—although the subject approach was
not fully endorsed (Roberts 1977, 14).
These contrasting descriptive practices have modern descendants that
can be embodied within the same information system. Google's advanced
search descends from the practice of indexing newspapers by syntactic
transformations on object-language. Further semantic work is not applied
to the objects described, although they may contain deliberate descrip-
tive elements (for instance, in the application of metadata). Descriptions
not available for direct inspection are automatically generated from the
verbal objects themselves and further generate indexes to those descrip-
tions. Direct human clerical labor that was involved in nineteenth-century
practice is now delegated to modern information technologies that oper-
ate syntactically and deterministically. The need for briefer descriptions
imposed by storage constraints has also been removed, but the searcher's
labor remains intense.
WorldCat
embodies both practices. Guided by codes developed from
their historical antecedents, descriptions are created by human semantic
work, with the aim of creating more systematic descriptions than those
given by transcription of the verbal objects. These systematic descriptions
aim to increase the searcher's selection power and reduce labor. Elements
of syntactic labor can also be found, transformed into a machine proc-
ess. For instance,
WorldCat
automatically transforms humanly created
descriptions into searchable indexes. Descriptions themselves increasingly
incorporate information derived by syntactic processes from the verbal
objects taken for description.
Some common trends over time can be discerned in these processes of
description. There is a decrease in the direct human labor involved in the
