As an information management specialist (I own a company called
Ionosphere Research which does custom on-line search and retrieval as
well as supervise the below mentioned.) I hear frustration like Charlie's
expressed every day. To those on this list who
have contributed so much to my enjoyment and understanding of the great
cinematic arts (I am both an audience member and "wanna-be" screenwriter)
I would like to offer my assistance *gratis*. If you have exhausted all
your resources (and those of the combined knowledge of this list) feel
free to e-mail me with your query and I'll see what I can do for you.I
will put together some tips lists for operations like Boolean searching,
search limiting, using WAIS (sometimes far more efficient than the web
search engines)or other topics of interest and send them privately to
anyone who can use them. If they were of use they could go into some ftp
directory or I'd do the html and you (whoever)could store
them in a publicly accessible place. I would orient them specifically for
those in this field of study and I'll take Charlie's outline as a
guide for what is needed. If anyone has any more they would like to
add to that list e-mail me privately and I'll add it. Additionally
when a topic is ready I'll either post it or a notice of it or if
anyone has any other suggestion please let me know. I just want to
make sure the information is readily available to all who need it.
When I say free I mean free with regards to specific questions.(I'll send
you my company *manifesto*-it's a little more than a mere mission
statement to anyone who wants it-but I have to finish writing it first.
You will then understand why I do things pro bono sometimes-Does
"information wants to be free" ring a bell with anyone?)
I may not be able to jump right on them within the hour so to speak
but I'll do my best.
I just feel like I want to give something back.
Marnie L. Froberg
Library Staff Supervisor
City Centre Campus vox:(604) 443-8345
Vancouver Community College fax:(604) 443-8329
250 West Pender e-mail:[log in to unmask]
Vancouver B.C. V6B 1S9 e-mail:[log in to unmask]
Canada
On Sat, 30 Dec 1995, C Harris wrote:
> I apologise in advance if this is on the long side/in the wrong
> newsgroup.
>
> Do you have the same problems I do, when you try to use the Internet
> for researching scripts, etc? Is it possible for us to compile a
> resource that can help us all with the problems we all run up against?
>
> One of the most frustrating thing about the Internet at the moment is
> that, while it is crammed with useful stuff, and complex mechanisms,
> it is not yet aimed at the serious writer (or other professional come
> to that) who just wants to travel down the highway without worrying
> about what's going on inside the engine.
>
> All the books and articles I've read, including some quite good
> introductory books, start from the available features (eg: the web,
> usegroups, Archie, ftp) and tell you what you can do with them.. What
> they don't do is start from the other end - which tends to be the
> professional user's end - ie: the needs of the user. :-( ) <scream of
> frustration>
>
> For example, a recent article mentioned gophers. It said that you can
> use gophers through Netscape, but that you get "better" results from
> dedicated gopher software. But what does "better" mean? Does it mean
> faster, or more accurate, or more detailed, or that it will access a
> wider range of material, or I'll get a longer list, or what? None of
> the books I've read answer this question.
>
> As a professional screenwriter, I tend to need the following - quite
> distinct - types of research, with quite different requirements:
>
> a) Specific facts. eg: what were the key dates of the Spanish Civil
> War, the battles, the names etc. This kind of information is not
> file-specific, in that it's probably held in a number of different
> places, and it doesn't matter which one I get it from. After all, 1936
> is 1936, wherever it's stored.
>
> b) Opinions, eg: historical accounts of the Spanish Civil War. These
> are more file-specific, in that one historian's account is not the
> same as someone else's. However, I probably don't want to specify a
> particular historian.
>
> c) Contemporary accounts, eg: letters from people involved, soldiers,
> eye-witnesses, etc. Here I care about the specific words, but am still
> not asking for a particular author. Are there search engines that are
> better at distinguishing such files.
>
> d) Specific files, eg: I might want the lyrics of the Red Flag, or a
> particular Spanish folk song.
>
> e) Background information. eg: social, geographical, cultural facts
> about Spain in the first half of the century. Maybe even pictures.
>
> I hope these criteria clarify the kind of searches I've been trying to
> carry out with enormous effort and often little effect. (I'm not
> asking for this actual information - the Spanish Civil War is only
> given as an example).
>
> I've already spent hours that could be spent writing and earning money
> in fruitless trawls (and spent a fair amount of money in phone charges
> in the process). Of course, I'll do it if I have to - but there must
> be people out there who have already used all these things and can
> give me (and people like me) some answers.
>
> If we can pool our experiences then we should be able to make the
> whole system a lot more friendly to use.
>
> Sorry again about the length of this posting.
>
> <echoing cry for help slowly dies away across the phone lines>
>
> Charlie Harris.......... [log in to unmask]
> Charlie Harris
>
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