a) Digitization of Paper Catalog Different manufacturers follow different styles while creating their catalog. This is all right so long as the catalogs remain on paper, since the user browses through the catalogs one at a time. However, when the usage shifts to Internet based browsing of catalogs, and that too through an Internet portal, homing down to a particular part in a particular manufacturer's catalog is not possible unless, first of all, all the catalog matter are arranged in one standard format. This Publishing Company, in order to aid designers and buyers in selecting the parts of their choice from their Internet site, has designed the format in which all the manufacturer's catalog information would be presented. HOPE CONSULTING INC. has been given the assignment of converting each manufacturers catalog into this digital format. This process requires detailed study of each catalog to find out all necessary data elements and to incorporate the same in the format provided. Quite often, relevant information has to be deciphered from additional notes and explanations provided in the catalog.

b) Assignment of Headings to Parts To facilitate a user in locating the desired component over the Internet, it becomes almost mandatory to provide as many links as possible to the parts. Since it is practically impossible to predict the kind of such a query that a user would put-forth, a successful search can only be ascertained if multiple "keywords" are provided for the parts like the way, a web page incorporates a whole lot of meta data, which aids its selection by the search engines. In a similar manner assignment of multiple product headings to a part also increases its probability of being identified by a precise search query. The product headings range from very basics e.g. Nuts, bolts etc to very specific like anodized nuts for marine applications. Thus, an engineer has to have an extensive knowledge of the possible uses of the product for him to assign the relevant product headings. On an average, HOPE CONSULTING INC. assigns 15 product headings to each part, the number going up to 22 to 25 where necessary.There is a specific category, "private", where only one heading has to be assigned. Naturally, this has to be the most appropriate and precise labeling, out of several alternatives, and therefore requires very deep understanding of different products and applications.

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