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Browsing

jan.wall's picture
2005 13 Jun

I'm struck by this thought when I read these posts - what about browsing? I wonder if the focused search - i.e. knowing exactly what is "needed" will be the demise of wonderful serendipious finds?

For example - downloading specific tunes rather than buying a CD: when I buy a CD, I often find tunes that I didn't know but like more as time goes by. And when I go to a library, often the book I really want is the one sitting on the shelf next to the one I thought I needed...

And if we only rely on what's hot, do we cut out a lot of "filler" material that gives a more rounded picture?

I'm not sure where I'm headed with this, but it seem to me that we as a society are either headed to a homogenization of culture, or we could be headed to total customization. (And if we’re all unique, aren’t we all the same?) ;)

    Lynn Baird's picture

    There was an excellent news

    There was an excellent news article recently on the reason for large collections and the purpose of browsing, referenced above. Here’s a great quote:”The chance of seeing what the next volume is, or running your eyes idly over the spines, opening the pages and falling upon something is memorable, pleasurable, instructive and frequently decisive in the way you work,” said Neil Harris, a U. of C. historian and member of the faculty committee involved in planning the new addition.

    While we may promote ease of use, should we not also be working towards providing excellence of resource? Google Scholar versus expensive databases, for example. The challenge before us is the help our users recognize that there are times when the first answer located isn’t necessarily the response to the question.

    If we are linear in our approach to information seeking, we are unlikely to entertain other ideas. It takes a broad mind to even see the serendipitous event as an option.

    Lynn Baird

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    Submitted by Lynn Baird (not verified) on Thu, 12/07/2006 - 12:03pm.