The Work of Marcia J. Bates

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The Work of Marcia J. Bates

• Jenna Hartel
• Department of Information Studies, University of
  Tampere, FinlandDepartment of Information
  Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
  (UCLA), U.S.A.

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White, H. D., McCain, K. W. (1998). Visualizing
a discipline An author co-citation analysis of
information science, 1972-1995. Journal of the
American Society for Information Science, 49(4),
327-355.
Bibliometrics
Citation Analysis
Science Communication
Experimental Retrieval
User Theory
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White, H. D., McCain, K. W. (1998). Visualizing
a discipline An author co-citation analysis of
information science, 1972-1995. Journal of the
American Society for Information Science, 49(4),
327-355.
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Scientist-Poets Wanted by Howard D. White from
The 50th Anniversary Special Issue of The Journal
of the American Society for Information Science,
guest edited by Marcia Bates
Scientist-Poets Wanted I see the field of
library and information science (LIS) highly
centrifugal and greatly in need of high-quality
syntheses. Library and information science has
always been easy to enter by persons trained in
other disciplines, particularly if they bring
quantitative skills. The pattern has been many
fresh starts by new entrants rather than strong
cumulation. Nor is there full agreement as to
which work is paradigmatic. Therefore, I would
give warm encouragement to writers who show a
talent for creative integration and criticism of
ideas already embodied in the literature. Their
efforts should indeed go into reading and
organizing claims, rather than gathering new
data. I would particularly like to see books
that attempt to organize whole segments of LIS
through some single, powerful metaphor or
thematic statementfor example, the notion of
information overload notion of cumulative
advantage. Since I think one of the scandals of
the field is that there is no fat, standard
textbook that we can all use and disparage, I
would like to see ambitious people with
backgrounds in literature or philosophy actually
try to state what the canon is in LIS the
writings that would be summarized in the
textbookand to justify their choices. If that is
too Olympian, I would like critical explications
of noted individual authors, such as Derek Price
or Gerard Salton, by some-one who reads them in
full and interviews their disciples and critics,
in the manner of a journalist. I suppose I am
calling for persons who add the skills of a poet
to whatever training we can give them as scholars
or scientistsscientist-poets, if you will. Why
not try to recruit students with demonstrable
skills writers into our Ph.D. programs and then
ask them each to write a short book at the
absolute top of their bent? Ask them to do for us
what John McPhee has done for geology or Steven
Pinker has done for linguistics. Would it be
possible for use as models of academic writing
not the usual dull dissertations but Howard Gard-
The Minds New Science or Sherry Turkles The
Second Self Tom McArthurs Worlds of Reference? A
talented newcomer might be asked into the
problem of algorithmic synopsis writings as it
has occurred from Hans Peter Luhns day to Henry
Smalls or the problem of getting concise
word-association maps Lauren Doyles semantic
roadmaps of the early 1960s onto the computer
screen to help online searchers during an actual
online search (instead of merely publishing them
in journals). The latter is the now-fashionable
problem of visualization of literatures, which
Katherine McCain and I discussed in the 1997
ARIST. I call your attention to the fact that,
just as we have no textbook, there has also never
been a general account of our field published in
the American trade press. There is no paperback
you can give to your uncle at Christmas and say,
Heres what its all about. It would be nice to
work toward such an account, perhaps by offering
a monetary prize in an ASIS competition. Someday
there might even be a section labeled Information
Science, as there is one now for Linguistics, in
bookstores like Borders or Dillons. Probably
none of us will live that long, but one can
dream. Howard D. White, College of Information
Science and Technology, Drexel University
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A call to action for creative synthesis within
LIS
I see the field of library and information
science (LIS) highly centrifugal and greatly in
need of high-quality syntheses. I would give
warm encouragement to writers who show a talent
for creative integration and criticism of ideas
I would particularly like to see books that
attempt to organize whole segments of LIS
through some single, powerful metaphor I
would like critical explications of noted
individual authorsby some-one who reads them in
full I am calling for persons who add the
skills of a poet to whatever training we can give
them as scholars or scientists scientist
-poets, if you will...
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Thesis Bates has created castles and
inverted castles across the field of Library
and Information Science, that clarify,
structuralize, and popularize key notions about
information.
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• Bates Oeuvre
• Searching
• Information seeking behavior
• Information structure and organization
• General theoretical and professional issues of
  LIS
• Little known fact
• She is synesthetic

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Synesthesia a neurologic condition in which a
stimulus to one sense triggers another.
Examples ?a dog barking smells like
lavender ?the color red sounds like fireworks
?ham tastes pointy
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Text is a locus for synesthesia. For
synesthetes, letters and words may have
personality and gender. The most common
manifestation is a colored alphabet
a b c d e f g h i j k l mn o p q r s tu v w x
y z
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Gershwin was a synesthete
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Nabokov was a synthesthete
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Kandinsky was a synesthete
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Does this impact

• Information
• Science?

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(Bates alphabet)

• Information
• Science !

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• Essentials of Bates Work
• Crystallizes a situation or issue that afterwards
  seems obvious
• Provides structure to something previously
  unstructured
• Creates a simple model
• Uses vivid metaphors
• Has catchy terms or titles
• Integrative across specialties in LIS structure
  -- use
• Integrative across scopes theory -- practice

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• Seven by Bates
• 1. Rigorous Systematic Bibliography (1976)
• 2. Search Tactics (1979) Information Search
  Tactics
• 3. What is a Reference Book? (1986) What is a
  Reference Book? A Theoretical and Empirical
  Analysis
• 4. Berrypicking (1989) The Design of Browsing and
  Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search
  Interface
• 5. Getty/Humanities Reports (1993-1994) The
  Getty Online Searching Project Reports 1-5
• 6. Invisible Substrate (1999) The Invisible
  Substrate of Information Science
• 7. Cascade (2002) The Cascade of Interactions in
  the Digital Library Interface

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Explains that any subject bibliography needs to
be framed or is otherwise useless!Provides
five guidelines for framingscope, domain,
information fields, organization, selection
principles
1. Rigorous Systematic Bibliography (1976)
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PRESENTS 29 TACTICS FOR ONLINE SEARCHING!Search
Tactic a move made to further a
searchRESPELL to try another spellingBIBBLE
to look for a bibliography already
preparedCHECK, WEIGH, PATTERN, CORRECT,
RECORD, SELECT, SURVEY, CUT, STRETCH, CLEAVE,
SPECIFY, EXHAUST, REDUCE, PARALLEL, PINPOINT,
NEIGHBOR, SCAFFOLD, BLOCK, SUPER, SUB, RELATE,
TRACE, VARY, FIX, REARRANGE, RESPACE,
CONTRARYThis won the JASIS best paper for
1980
2. Search Tactics (1979)Information Search
Tactics
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?Points out that there is no descriptive
definition for reference book.? Creates a
definition based upon its unique structure
made up of files, records, and fields.?
Explains how structure encourages a certain
manner of use look up and scan not reading.
3. What is a Reference Book? (1986) What is a
Reference Book? A Theoretical and Empirical
Analysis
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4. Berrypicking (1989) The Design of Browsing and
Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search
Interface

• Key points
• Searching is an iterative behavior
• Queries evolve during searching
• Information is gathered a bit-at-a-time
• Several types of resources and search techniques
  are used

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5. Getty Humanities Studies (1993-1994) The
Getty Online Searching Project Reports 1-5

• An in-depth domain study of online search
  practices of humanities scholars using Dialog.
  Among other findings
• Humanities scholars relate differently to their
  literature than scientists.
• Search terminology in the humanities is
  distinct.
• Databases such as Dialog are poorly geared to
  humanities searching.
• Proposes concrete solutions to better serve
  humanities scholars.

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6. Invisible Substrate (1999) The Invisible
Substrate of Information Science
? Provides a succinct inspiring definition of
the information science field. ? Illuminates its
unique emphasis on the structure and pattern of
information. ? Locates LIS as a meta-discipline
that runs orthogonal to subject
disciplines. This won JASIS best paper for
1999!
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7. Cascade (2002)The Cascade of Interactions in
the Digital Library Interface

• Models the elements that come together to form a
  digital library.
• Shows how design features in one part of the
  system effect all other areas.

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• Thesis
• Bates has created
• castles and inverted castles
• across the field of Library and Information
  Science,
• that clarify, structuralize, and popularize
• key notions about information.

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c a s t l e s capture the imagination are
architecturally fascinating and elaborate stand
out on the landscape are memorable and
enduring are seats of power soar to heights
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i n v e r t e d c a s t l e s are
foundational infrastructural (are built upon)
create depth and stability are where the
tools are stored, the workshops
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One way of viewing ideas in the IS
field(Glazier and Grover, 2002)

• paradigm
• grand theory
• formal theory
• substantive theory
• hypothesis
• research question
• proposition
• concept
• definition

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Castles Inverted Castles

• paradigm
• grand theory
• formal theory
• substantive theory
• hypothesis
• research question
• proposition
• concept
• definition

Work in Progress
Invisible Substrate
Cascade
Berrypicking
Getty/Humanities
Search Tactics
Rigorous Systematic Bibliography
ReferenceBook?
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
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NOT ALL SCHOLARS CREATE CASTLES As example
Sheras work is more like a weather system
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• Future Bates
• Marcia Bates has retired from full-time teaching
  at UCLA but is active in research and writing.
• She is working on a major meta-theoretical
  statement
• on information that is currently in review.

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The End
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• Bibliography of Bates work reviewed
• Bates, Marcia J. "Rigorous Systematic
  Bibliography." RQ 16 (Fall 1976) 7-26.
• Bates, Marcia J. "Information Search Tactics."
  Journal of the American Society for Information
  Science 30 (July 1979) 205-214.
• Bates, Marcia J. "What Is a Reference Book A
  Theoretical and Empirical Analysis." RQ 26 (Fall
  1986) 37-57.
• Bates, Marcia J. The Design of Browsing and
  Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search
  Interface. Online Review 13 (October 1989)
  407-424.
• Bates, Marcia J. The Getty End-User Online
  Searching Project in the Humanities Report No.
  6 Overview and Conclusions. College Research
  Libraries 57 (November 1996) 514-523.
• Bates, Marcia J..The Invisible Substrate of
  Information Science. Journal of the American
  Society for Information Science 50, 12 (1999)
  1043-1050.
• Bates, Marcia J. The Cascade of Interactions in
  the Digital Library Interface. Information
  Processing and Management 38 (2002)381-400.
• Marcia Bates website http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/f
  aculty/bates/