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Old 04-15-2010, 07:39 AM   #36
QIbHom
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[QUOTE=irenas;871216]I believe (correct me if i am wrong), that a library search is usually set up as "LastName ,(comma) FirstName"
So it would be "Asimov, Isaac"
/QUOTE]

No, not really. I administer library automation systems for a living.

In old systems, they were set up to ignore the comma, and they were indexed by LASTNAME FIRSTNAME. People complained. So rather than an exact or browse search, most systems started doing a keyword search on authors, still ignoring the comma. That way, FIRSTNAME LASTNAME would work, but you'd get more false hits.

Now people are screaming that the OPACs (Online Public Access Catalogs, or what you use to search the database) need to work just like google. Searching is getting more complex and slower, and delivering more false hits.

It is a huge political issue, actually, how searching works in public libraries. It has nearly reached religious status.

I'm trying very hard here not to go into a rant on indexing, types of searching and why precision is really a very nice thing to have.
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