Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The determining forces isolated by theoretical discussion have emerged in
major information systems as highly significant influences on real-world
developments. Technological processes are
a priori
syntactic in character.
The most compelling aspect of the dynamic observed, determined by rela-
tive costs, has been the transfer of syntactic processes from direct human
labor to humanly constructed and adopted technology. Although not nec-
essarily applied widely, human semantic description labor persists both
as an inheritance and for its current value. Where semantic description
labor had value in enhancing selection power and reducing search labor,
its absence tends to transfer selection labor to the searcher. One writer has
suggested that a theory of bibliographic searching may replace a theory of
bibliographic description (Wilson 2001). A task for information retrieval
research might involve expertise and strategies that can assist exploitation
of syntactically generated descriptions. Once understood, strategies may
not be complex: consider, for instance, the contrasting results characteris-
tically obtained from word and phrase searching.
The forces identified in the model contain no intrinsic dynamism that
compels transferring human semantic selection labor from description to
searching, but they may have that effect in many contexts. In a relatively
closed and controlled system, the fact of consumption of material may
be assured and patterns of consumption—one epistemological basis for
the choice of mode of description—can be anticipated (Shera 1952/1965;
1961). Even then, assigning objects to categories can be problematic and
highly inconsistent. More open systems cannot assure the fact of con-
sumption, and patterns of consumption are difficult to anticipate: “if you
watch it [display of Google queries] long enough, the different queries
show how diverse the world is” (Weisman 2002). Thus, practices that
reduce human labor in description and transfer work to searching may
proliferate.
Decision Variation
Decision practices reveal evident commonalities, variation, and an under-
lying value. Evident commonality lies in transferring established descrip-
tion processes to technology. Variation occurs primarily in two loci: the
extent of syntactic description processes applied—what proportion of the
original document to capture and represent—and the presence or absence
