Anyone remember that TV Show? In Search Of? It was a show that ran from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s, hosted by Leonard Nimoy, and focused on the investigation into mysterious phenomena. Sometimes I fee like that when I am searching for information. I am in search of information and through some mysterious phenomena, a mass of information appears, as if by some miracle, for me to peruse. When you think about it, this really is an incredible thing we deal with daily and the amount of information available to us is astounding. But is it really miraculous?
The reason we are able to search and retrieve so much information is due to the efforts by those who are skilled at organizing their information in ways it can be found, and the technologists who have been able to and continue to enhance their ability to analyze what is out there and determine if what they found is something of relevance conceptually and contextually to what you seek. The better the information is organized, the better we apply metadata to enhance findability, and the stronger the technology gets in its ability to analyze and correlate the information to what we seek, the better and more precise the results.
In my view, the beginning of this process is in the organization and tagging of our information. If we can organize the information in a consistent and logical manner to align with organizational needs and target use audience, applying metadata that not only support current users but those potential users as well, the better and more accurate the results will be in finding what we are seeking. This of course means we need to understand our intended audience, how they think, and terms they use. When I say tank, what do you think of? Some will think military, some air, some fuel, and some water tank. It all depends upon your personal point of reference at the tie you hear it.
While planning for information organization is a key to improved search results, you can also let the user community add tags to the information. Tags that are meaningful to them and that will eventually help you expand and strengthen your information vocabulary. While a well structured information organization plan is a sound approach to consistency, the application of metadata can be seen as equally or even more important for findability. No matter what, when you are in search of, can you really find, and when you do, how do you know you’ve found it all?
What say you? Do you have a story to tell? What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have a topic of interest you would like discussed in this forum? Let me know.
Bob Larrivee, Director and Industry Advisor – AIIM
Email me: blarrivee@aiim.org
Follow me on Twitter – @BobLarrivee
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