Is Boolean dead? You know you're in trouble when Mary Ellen Bates is asking that question.

But she has some good points. Much as I want my freshmen to understand the different between AND and OR, and how to combine searches in OVID, I do find myself wondering why we can't simplify the mechanics for them. I have the same reaction to this issue that I have to the idea of seamless metasearching:

[picture me swooning with a hand to my brow] But what if they no longer understand the difference between a book chapter and an article? What if they never use a print journal again? O woe is me!

We need to figure out how much (if at all) it actually matters if they can't differentiate content types and search etiquette, as long as they understand how to evaluate what they get when they get it. (via Librarian in Black)

Posted by Hilary at May 22, 2004 10:14 PM