Inept and satisfied, redux.

Twenty-one years ago, I went to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) as a library associate. In those days (and I think this is still the case), the first couple of months of the program included orientations and training across the full range of NLM programs and services. We spent an entire week getting indexing training from Thelma Charen, the grande dame of NLM indexing (she literally “wrote the book” [1, 2]). We spent another entire week learning how to search the various MEDLARS databases, using “Silent 700” terminals, where you stuck the telephone handset into a cradle above the keyboard and watched your search results print out on thermal paper. “GIGO,” the computer programmers would say: “garbage in, garbage out.” We were taught that unless you understood the structure of the database, the details of the commands, the intricacies of indexing, you should not be allowed to have access to the database. Not just that you would not do good searches, but that you should not be allowed to access the database. It would be bad for you if you were not properly trained.