AVS NOT searches-- the "Bud Not Buddy" fix

[Elizabeth Thomsen <et@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We're looking at the Phase 3 enhancements to AVS searching, and I have 
mixed feelings about the option "AVS automatic quote insertion."  If you 
turn this on, the system will not interpret the word "NOT" as a Boolean 
operator, but will search it as part of a phrase.  This does fix the 
infamous "Bud Not Buddy" problem, in which people doing a keyword search 
for this award-winning (and excellent) children's book would get results 
for anything with the word BUD except for records that had the word 
Buddy, obviously a problem.

With this fix, to add an exclusion to a search, you would use the 
operator AND NOT instead of NOT.  This is an improvement, in my opinion, 
but not a real fix.  Now we can search for "Bud Not Buddy" but not for 
any records that have the phrase "and not" in them.  There are certainly 
fewer of those, but they do exist-- in our database I see books called 
"The Same and Not the Same," "On being a superpower :|band not knowing 
what to do about it," and "Too old, too ugly, and not deferential to 
men," among many others.

I'd like to see a different approach to this problem.  I'd like the rare 
searcher who is intentionally trying to use the Boolean operator NOT 
need to enter this in some format not likely to be confused with words 
in titles.  For example, if the Alta Vista style minus sign were 
supported for use in the catalog, there would be no confusion.  It's 
frustrating that this exists in our system, but only with the Alta Vista 
search which III doesn't recommend for the public catalog, and which 
doesn't honor record suppression.

Am I missing something here?

-- 
Elizabeth Thomsen, Member Services Manager
NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers MA 01923
et@xxxxxxxxxx