If you can do thesaurus navigations,
Give every query term its proper weight,
Retrieve a set for all search formulations,
Then rank the documents by score and date --
If you can log and analyse transactions,
Perform word-stemming (either strong or weak),
And follow feed-back loops with term extractions
To find the reference enquirers seek --
If you can handle deadlock and collision
But not betray the bottleneck you're in,
And learn to balance recall with precision
Whilst greeting both impostors with a grin --
If you can stand a tough evaluation,
Maintaining a congenial interface,
Yours is the key to boundless information,
And worlds that lie beyond the database!
Susan Jones