Dear librarian friends

[dsrtao]

Because I have so many of you, and what are you for if not to abuse shamelessly with question about libraries?

When I use my library's online catalog, which I do at a frequency ranging between daily and hourly, I am presented with four search methods: keywords, authors, subjects, and titles. I nearly always use authors or titles, and I am generally happy with the results. I understand keyword searching.

Why does the concept of a subject search still exist? It can't help but present you with useless statistics, such as "there are 14,577 books in the library about the Civil War" followed by the first twenty books written by Arthur Aardvark about that subject. If it led to some sort of taxonomy or shelving system it might at least be excusable for helping the novice librarian point a patron to the right part of the building... but it doesn't.

Shouldn't this be replaced by DMOZ or the original Yahoo! directory or something similar? What am I failing to get?

Comments

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Subject is something I understand. I learned it as a child at the drawers of the card catalog in the school library. I've never entirely figured out how to get keyword to do what I want. Not that I couldn't, I just haven't. I am more tech savvy than some people I know. (And less than a lot of you - I'm starting to wonder if I'm growing moss.) The more a computer thingy looks like something in the familiar physical world, the easier it is to get aged parents to try it for themselves.