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Scott and the race to the South Pole:
the heroic failure of cataloguing the web
Abstract
Scott’s race to the South Pole against Amundsen captured the imagination of the world. In spite of extensive planning and experience, Scott and his party were beaten to the Pole and perished on the return journey. Comparing his efforts with Amundsen’s, a number of lessons may be learned. The critical factor in the journey was the choice of transport and in cataloguing the web, our choice of technology will influence the success of our efforts.
- Introduction
- Information seeking and cataloguing
- Problems Scott faced
- Similar problems we face in cataloguing the web
- Scott’s journey to the Pole
1. Introduction
At the beginning of this century the Antarctic was the last frontier, the last unexplored place on earth, a place of terrible beauty. Peary had just conquered the North Pole. In the scramble for empire there was national prestige and territory involved for the first nation to reach the South Pole; for the individual involved, honours and financial rewards. Scott wrote
"The main object of the expedition is to reach the South Pole and secure for the British Empire the honour of that achievement."
Scott’s race to the South Pole against Amundsen captured the world’s imagination. His expedition was well planned. He had experience from a previous journey to Antarctica in 1904.
He was going to use the tried and tested method of man-hauling sledges and to assist in fund raising, the expedition had the dual purposes of exploration and scientific discovery.
Yet through a combination of bad luck and mismanagement, he was beaten to the Pole by Amundsen, and on the return journey his party of five perished. Through the discoveries of his last diaries, he has left an epic account of their superhuman efforts and ultimate sacrifice. Comparing his efforts with Amundsen, a number of lessons may be learned when cataloguing the web.
2. Information seeking and cataloguing
The next challenge facing us is to catalogue the Internet. It is large, unorganised and it is difficult to find the information required. We need to organise access, as it will become the major information resource.
Therefore we have to understand the purpose of cataloguing. It is a tool which helps in the process of information seeking by the user. This consists of a number of steps.
the user comes with an information request looking for a particular piece of information
they want to identify those sources that may satisfy the information request
they need to critically evaluate the sources and select those that contain the information
they then need to obtain the items that are selected e.g. book, article
we need to manage the entire process so that it works effectively
Cataloguing aids in this process.
- It identifies by the listing of items held in a particular location e.g. library
- It selects by providing a mechanism where the user finds the information that they want i.e. the catalogue provides access through author, title, subject or keyword
- It obtains by arranging the items on the shelf so that they may be easily found
- It provides an infrastructure such as people, rules and organisation to carry out the cataloguing
- These conditions describe the current cataloguing performed in libraries
When we talk about the Internet what has changed?
- We are no longer talking about the items held in a particular location but information available anywhere. The amount of information has increased enormously.
- we are looking for a mechanism that is user friendly in allowing the user to access the information required i.e. a search engine such as Alta Vista
- information is held in a virtual format and the arrangement is unimportant
- Currently there is no official infrastructure available to perform this organising role or the trained personnel to carry out the duties
- this is the brave new world of the Internet
3. Problems Scott faced
Capt Robert Falcon Scott arrived in Melbourne October 1910 for fund raising and restocking, en route to the Antarctic. While he was there a telegram arrived, announcing that Amundsen was also going to the Pole. Unexpectedly he had a competitor and the race to the Pole was on.
In January 1911 he arrived in Antarctica and set up base camp. The distance to the Pole was 800 miles and it was crucial that they made preparations for their return journey. One of these was a depot-laying journey, which deposited food stores for use on their way back.
The Antarctic environment was hostile and full of unexpected dangers. At one point during a trip, their camp on an ice floe broke loose and began to drift out to sea. As they raced back to shore they were attacked by killer whales but luckily made it back to safety. They then faced the long winter season of no sunlight that lasted from April to August.
Scott had to consider the crucial problem of transport to ensure the success of his journey.
- He was innovative in his ideas for transport. Scott was the first to ascend in a hot air balloon in Antarctica. He had brought a balloon with him on his 1904 expedition but had made only one flight.
- He brought three experimental motor sledges with him but one sank through the ice when unloading from the ship.
- For the journey he decided upon man hauling of sledges instead of using dogs.
"In my mind no journey ever made with dogs can approach the height of that fine conception which is realised when a party of men go forth to face hardships, dangers, and difficulties with their own unaided efforts, and by days and weeks of hard labour succeed in solving some problem of the great unknown."
There were other issues that he failed to resolve
- The scientific and geographic goals of the expedition were confused and separate. They should have focussed on the main goal of reaching the pole. Instead on the return journey they still collected geological samples which slowed their journey and thirty five pounds of rocks were found in their last tent
- The failure to treat scurvy which seriously weakened them on the return journey with the lack of fresh food
- Leadership and decision making – taking five men to the pole with only enough supplies for four
- Safety and margin of error and the possibility of bad weather
- Sentimentality – cannibalism of dogs
- Victorian ethos of nothing gained without effort i.e. no pain no gain
As he raced toward the South Pole, Scott was assailed by doubts. Would he be beaten by Amundsen and be robbed of the glory and dreams that he had planned and worked so hard for. To the loser would go nothing and his hard work of the last few years would have been for naught. To the victor, the rewards and financial security that he longed for and that would guarantee his future. It was all or nothing. It was a race to the Pole.
4. Similar problems we face in cataloguing the web
We have to decide: what are the best tools to access information on the Internet?
- Traditional cataloguing using 856 MARC field
- Search engines: Alta Vista – popular, automated
- Subject directories: Yahoo – human intervention
- Metadata – version of cataloguing
- Subject gateways: Avel
Different projects have been started to organise the web
OCLC Internet cataloguing project which ran from 1994 to 1996 and finished with 40-50,000 records
Librarians’ index to the Internet has over 4,000 links in a selected and annotated subject directory [for public libraries]
INFOMINE has 14,000 resources organised with modified LC subject headings
OCLC CORC: a catalogue combining Metadata and Intercat
What are the problems in cataloguing the web?
Size: it is too big, over 800 million pages and way too big for any human intervention. It is impossible to manually catalogue the new pages as they appear.
Non-permanent: how do you catalogue a non-permanent electronic page which can be changed at any time, is dynamic and has no stable life and may disappear at any time?
Page complexity: how do you capture the complexity of a web page, its appearance, its different formats, its relationships to other pages, its own changes?
Different browsers: how do you account for the treatments by the different browsers and their versions?
Non -textual: how do you handle non-textual material? How do you handle plug-in and embedded material?
How would you know when new pages appear, there is no central recording mechanism?
There are still many issues to be resolved.
Gorman’s 4 tier model of access
- Traditional cataloguing
- Enriched Dublin core
- Minimal Dublin core
- Unstructured full-text keyword
5. Scott’s journey to the Pole
They set out for the Pole on November 1 in a party of 16 men accompanied by 10 ponies, 23 dogs, 13 sledges and 2 motor sledges. They would travel in a number of stages and the large group would gradually reduce in size to help the smaller party reach the Pole.
Soon after beginning the two motor sledges broke down. The first stage was a trek of 40 days across the ice shelf to the Bear dsmore Glacier where the first party of 4 men and the dogs turned back. The next stage was an ascent of the Glacier up to the Antarctic plateau, which sits 10,000 feet above sea level. At mid glacier level, the second party of four men returned.
They reached the plateau after 24 days during which time the ponies had died of exhaustion. Here Scott had to make the agonising decision of who would make the final dash for the Pole. He selected a party of five men and the other three disappointed men turned back. It was a strange decision: four was the ideal number in terms of equipment and food to make the journey and they would now have to accommodate another person who had not been planned for.
The final stage was still 169 miles to the Pole. They had seen no sign of the Norwegians but they knew it would be a close race. On January 16 they estimated that they would reach the Pole the next day but that afternoon they discovered a flag attached to a sled and the remains of a camp.
"This told us the whole story. The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole ... all dreams must go."
They reached the South Pole on January 18 1912 after a journey of 79 days pulling loads of 200 pounds per man. They had been beaten by Amundsen by four weeks. They found the Norwegian’s camp and inside the tent was a sheet of paper with the names of the five Norwegians who had reached the Pole on December 14.
Scott’s party was disconsolate at the South Pole.
"Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority."
They now had the return trip of 800 miles to complete. Gradually the weather worsened and they were affected by frostbite, scurvy, and physical exhaustion. Evans, one of the party, died. Food began to run low.
Oates’ self sacrifice
"I am just going outside and may be some time" was a noble gesture but only delayed the inevitable and did not change the outcome.
They struggled on. They were only eleven miles from One Ton Depot which was a major food supply. A blizzard stopped them from going on and they were forced to camp. They ran out of food and heating oil and the temperature had dropped to -42° C.
The last diary entry was dated March 29. In one of his last entries entitled "Message to the public" Scott wrote
"but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past … Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman."
In conclusion:
The critical factor in the race was the choice of the most appropriate transport. Faced with a journey of 1600 miles his choice of man hauling and ponies for transport did not prove as successful as Amundsen’s use of dogs for sledging. Similarly our efforts to manually catalogue the Internet may not be the most appropriate technology due to its vast size. So like Scott our efforts to catalogue the web may be a heroic failure.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley (1922) The worst journey in the world, Antarctica, 1910-1913. London, Constable.
Huntford, Roland (1980) Scott and Amundsen. New York : Putnam’s.
Oder, Norman (1998) Cataloging the Net: can we do it? Library journal, 123 (16) 47-51
Preston, Diana (1998) A first-rate tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the race to the South Pole. New York, Houghton Mifflin.
Scott, Robert F. (1993) Tragedy and triumph: the journals of Captain R.F. Scott’s last polar expedition. New York, Konecky & Konecky.
Terra Nova Expedition 1910-12. http://www.about.co.uk/visiting/sights/edwardwilson2.htm (22/11/98)
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