Collections digital searchable specific

Search terminology is a complicated topic; because different people use language differently, search engines are forced to predict the interactions of search criteria and the vernacular. IN William J. Turkel's article "Digital History Hacks," he examines  It's a complicated process, let's just say that the average person complicates a search parameter with their expectations. One such issue facing search engine developers is year parameters within documents.
"you also find that many people are trying to use dates to limit their searches in a way that most search engines don't allow.

england history 1350 to 1850
french history 1400's
world history 1500 through 1850"

Google's search parameters would seek documents containing, for instance, England, history, 1350, and 1850. It would not define the search in terms of year range.


Search engines are further complicated by the vast amount of information and the range of mediums which one might be seeking. In his article, "From Babel to Knowledge," Daniel Cohen expresses some of the ways in which these problems are being addressed  The seemingly limitless amount of information floating around on the Internet makes search engines necessary. Brute force searching, as applied by Google searches  websites for specific words; while it can be beneficial when you're looking for something specific presented in a web page format, it can be more daunting when searching for information contained in specific mediums such as course syllabus. Cohen expresses how an inclusive list of words can help refine a search to a syllabus:

"there were certain words that appeared very frequently on syllabi, far more so than on a typical web page. This list included, of course, 'syllabus' (appearing on over 90% of syllabi), 'readings' (and its singular, 'reading'), 'assignment' (and its plural 'assignments'), 'exam' and its variants and synonyms, and the word "week." When I ran the same analyses for word couplets, I found the most common pairings were 'fall' and 'spring' followed by a four-digit number (the 'Spring 2006' that is found on so many syllabi this term) followed by the all-important 'office hours...' A web page that contains many of these words – basic ingredients in the pedagogical cocktail – is extremely likely to be a syllabus"

Simple solutions, including education about search criteria as well as a utilization of parameter based search engines could really be to our benefit in the future. While search engines can not replace indexing systems like library ISBNs, people are making strides towards simplifying search results and increasing their functionality.