Quote:
Originally Posted by kmunoz
In my experience, multi-volume indexes are better. And not just because I used to be an academic sequestered in dusty libraries. Relying on a user's ability to select a search term is an abdication of responsibility. Reference works should always have thorough indexes. Otherwise, search effectiveness depends on a user knowing exactly what text to search for, even in cases where s/he isn't even sure what s/he's looking for.
A good index, especially one that's internally cross-referenced and behaves like a traditional thesaurus, covers all cases much better.
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For your search methods and style, I have no doubt that you are correct. As you said, you used to be an academic - thus, you've had training in searching.
However, not everyone who plays
GURPS is an academic.
Luckily, this isn't an "either/or" situation; it's possible to have both a comprehensive index and a multi-file search tool.