The first meeting of our little comps study group went quite well, I thought. We hadn’t decided on a method of study before we got together but fell into simply talking about issues and situations and applying concepts to them. This worked beautifully for me because I’m very context-dependent and will probably never forget our little discussion in which we tried to apply some information theories to restaurants. Really!

See, just like libraries, restaurants have the “public” (wait staff) and “tech” (cooks) division, even though they’re all working toward the common goal of providing access to a product for their patrons. Restaurants provide several different means of accessing possible products, including web sites, telephone, and print. Their “catalogs” (menus) must be kept up-to-date, but there are times when ephemeral items (daily specials) are not cataloged.

Restaurants also have to deal with vendors (food suppliers) and professional vs. support staff issues, plus they need to know how to judge when their product is out of date (weeding).

Patrons sometimes choose a restaurant because it’s the closest one (Zipf’s least effort) or because they happen to be in the neighborhood when they get hungry (Erdelez’s accidental discovery and serendipity). Sometimes a patron will misunderstand the server’s recital of the specials (Shannon and Weaver’s sender –> noise –> receiver). Patrons who are new to a cuisine are often very timid about ordering because they are unfamiliar with the ingredients (Belkin’s anomalous states of knowledge), but through trial-and-error come to know what they like (Khulthau’s learning as process).

And of course, if you’re eating at a buffet you’re doing what? Berry picking! (Bates)

Other ideas that apply: communities of practice, controlled vocabulary (a soup is not a stew), and the data/information/knowledge distinction (a recipe’s list of ingredients is data while the directions are information, but a chef’s ability to improvise on that recipe is due to knowledge).

Even Ranganathan’s five laws apply to restaurants:

  1. Food is for eating.
  2. Every foodie her cuisine.
  3. Every cuisine its foodie.
  4. Save the time of the foodie.
  5. A restaurant is a growing organism.

Who knew studying for comps could be such fun?