let's have a dial0g

[luciab]

I think I've answered all the questions for the Dial0g project, and the cut-and-pasted document is 111 pages, in size 12 times new roman font. Yikes. I have edited it some, to take out unnecessary line breaks, and I've removed some extra info. I still need to review it one more time to see if there's anything else I can take out.

Fortunately, it went really fast today, since I've figured out a lot of the tricks of the trade, so to speak.

As to the "why I'm doing this" question, though... still a mystery. It's like making us work in DOS instead of Windows. Silly. Maybe it's supposed to build character or something.

Comments

[zihuatanejo.livejournal.com]

Yay!

And pooh on silly assignments.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Good old Dialog, which I used in online searching class and have yet to touch again. ;) I understand why it seems silly, although I understand it's still used in some research libraries. I think there are two reasons they make you do it: to give you practice in searching using controlled syntax (which is still a useful skill, even in modern database searching) and because there are many, many members of the library community resistant to change. I will never forget the day in library school where I got caught up in a serious argument with classmates who were passionately defending the card catalog. So you never know when you will have to deal with some outdated technology.

At least you survived! :)

[luciab.livejournal.com]

I'm more likely to defend the card catalog than Dialog... at least it gives a visceral pleasure to us old farts. Heh. I do understand about the controlled syntax thing and had even kinda figured out for myself that it was likely the important part of the exercise. I think the single question that irritates me the most is telling us to find out how to subscribe to a magazine using dialog. Why on earth would you go to a database you have to pay for, and have to use controlled syntax (good phrase) instead of going to the magazine's website for free? I suppose it's possible that there's a magazine out there somewhere without a website... sigh.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Two words: subscription management. When you get magazines through a service, they deal with all your renewals, they track down lost issues for you, they get you replacement issues when things go missing, etc. That's what you're paying for, really, the service. It's not that big a deal in a small library but if you're dealing with hundreds or even thousands of subscriptions it's totally worth it.