Quote:

I worked in a library for two years back in college, and never gave any thought to indexing, other than filing those 3x5 cards.




Indexing...is now done with database management and content management software. It's been like for past 20 years for me. Most librarians would be submitting a business case for software these days,.make it web-based for knowledge management.

What makes it much for challenging nowadays is a trend that users themselves do the indexing of their own created documents. Well, quality assurance does fall abit on its face..since each person has a different perspective of classifying the same piece of information. Makes an information gatekeeper's job a real challenge.

My dept. was audited on this last week .
How we see and refind the information means thousands, millions of dollars in some industries. I have had users frantic for a document would affect decision-making for several million dollars in a contract.

Or a critical legal case that could change someone's life. We have to see indexing way beyond as merely a mechanical exercise. The right information placed logically and found later at right time...means...power to affect decision-making.
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