The Hogwarts Library and search engine...

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 47535

Bootekusic wrote:
> Anyway, it struck me as odd that there is no quick way of 
> finding information in the Hogwarts library. An example would is 
> shown in the first book when they can't find a thing on Nicholas 
> Flamel and search for him for weeks. They have the same problem in 
> The Goblet of Fire when Harry and Hermione are looking for 
> information on dragons and how to "defeat" them. They run across the 
> problem yet again when he has to figure out how to breathe 
> underwater. To me, it seemed like there should be some quick way of 
> finding what you need, using something like a search engine or even a 
> card catalog! Do you think that they had this problem with other 
> subjects also? This just struck me as strange because there seem to 
> be quick ways to do MOST things in the Wizarding world as opposed to 
> the Muggle world. So I'll let you guys mull this over while I finish 
> GOF for the 5th time...
> 
>  - Bootekusic

The easiest way to find anything in a library is something that we have 
yet to see Harry doing: asking the librarian! That is what Pince is 
there for, after all. However, Harry and co. seem possesed by a latent 
distrust towards figures in authority and prefer trying to find the 
info on their own (I can't blame them... I used to feel the same at 
their age). In every example you have put, they had a reason to keep 
others from knowing what they were looking for: they cannot let know 
that they have clues about Flammel (it would put Hagrid in danger for 
having told them), they cannot let know that Hagrid told them the first 
task would involve dragons, they don't want Krum to know that they have 
solved the egg puzzle, etc. There are multiple times in the books where 
they *do* find what they are looking for, though, and JKR simply skips 
over that part to the part where they are reding the correct book. 
Doing homework, for example.

Now, how does Pince find the information herself? We should ask Lexicon 
Steve this (he should know, if anyone), but I have the feeling that a 
librarian's job is to know where everything is. And there could be 
spells for searching books by content, only they don't come in the 
reglamentary school books, and are relatively unimportant, and thus 
Hermione has not heard of them yet.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf