LIS 535: Advanced Topics in the Organization of Knowledge

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LIS 535 Advanced Topics in the Organization of
Knowledge

• Instructor Ali Shiri

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Information organization
Abstracting
Information retrieval
Resource description
Searching
Annotations
Browsing
Users
Indexing
Relevance
Taxonomies
Subject matter
Vocabulary control
Databases
Digital libraries
Thesauri
Websites
Information representation
Information management
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Outline

• Introduction
• Motivation
• Course outline and schedule
• Course overview
• The user is the focus
• What are indexes?
• What is a subject?
• Relationships between subjects

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Some of the job titles

• Indexer
• Abstractor
• Thesaurus manager/developer
• Taxonomy manager/developer
• Knowledge organization specialist
• Metadata developer
• Subject analyst
• Information manager

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LIS 535 Course Overview

• Flipside of LIS 535 to make items accessible to
  the user/searcher
• Metadata Vocabularies
• Three Sections
• Indexing abstracting (subject analysis)
• Thesaurus construction (subject analysis)
• Thesauri on the Web

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Indexing Abstracting

• Purpose to construct representations of
  published items in a form suitable for inclusion
  in some type of database in print (e.g. Chem
  Abs) or digital (e.g. ERIC) form
• Index a pointer or systematic guide to the
  items in a collection (subject indexes also,
  author, geographic, etc.)
• Why? to minimize users time effort in
  finding information, AND to maximize users
  searching success

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Indexing Abstracting contd

• How? by choosing the best words that will match
  the users language, AND having a system of
  accurate and complete cross-references to related
  information
• Indexing Latin to point assigning specific
  terms to a document in order to represent the
  subject matter of that document often, using a
  controlled vocabulary
• In online retrieval subject terms can be
  combined in the search statement

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Indexing Abstracting contd

• Key information retrieval by indexing terms
  only as good as the quality of the index and the
  terms themselves
• The good indexer becomes the surrogate of the
  reader (Cleveland Cleveland, 5)
• Abstracting Latin to drag out writing brief
  narrative descriptions or summaries of documents
  in order to represent the subject matter of that
  item to pull out the essence of the document

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Example of an Abstracting Indexing Record
Title The academic library of tomorrow who will
do what? Author Altmann, Anna E Source
Canadian Library Journal 45(3) June 88, 147-152.
Abstract Examines the traditional division of
public and technical services in academic
libraries and explores the way in which the
corresponding designation of librarians according
to function is being challenged as a result of
automation and the anticipation of integrated
systems. Increased availability of cataloguing
copy has reduced the amount of original
cataloguing required and potentially frees
cataloguers to apply their subject backgrounds,
knowledge of the collections in their areas and
understanding of the catalogue and the
classification system in the public service
activities.
Descriptors Academic libraries User services
Technical services Information storage and
retrieval Information work Cataloguing
Computerized cataloguing Online cataloguing
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Thesaurus Construction

• Thesaurus a controlled vocabulary arranged in a
  known order in which equivalence, homographic,
  hierarchical and associative relationships among
  terms are clearly displayed identified
• Purpose to promote consistency in the indexing
  of documents and facilitate searching by linking
  items to Descriptor terms

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Thesauri on the Web

• To examine the application of thesauri on the
  Internet
• New information environments where thesauri are
  utilized such as subject gateways, portals and
  digital libraries
• User-centred evaluation of thesauri their
  interfaces

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Users

• Users information needs central focus for the
  course creating indexes, abstracts and thesauri
  that will help users locate information
• Points to consider
• Defining information
• Identifying relevant information
• System vs. Information vs. Situation views of
  relevance

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3 Views Relevance

• System view
• Direct match between query (search) terms and
  document (indexing) terms within a system
• What assumptions are built in to this approach?

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3 Views Relevance contd

• Information view
• Refers to a human judgment (often an
  intermediary) of conceptual relatedness between a
  request and a document
• What assumptions are built in to this approach?

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3 Views Relevance contd

• Situation view
• Refers to a relationship between information and
  the users information problem situation
• What assumptions are built in to this approach?

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Challenges in this course

• How do we assign meaning to documents terms?
  Is meaning static?
• How do we address users contextual information
  behaviours when constructing metadata
  vocabularies?
• How do we address the dynamic (ever-changing)
  nature of users information problems?
• Key to give users effective efficient
  short-cuts to information

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Indexes

• Are designed to provide access to the analyzed
  contents of smaller works that appear in
  collected information packages
• Are used as retrieval tools by info searchers
• Back-of-the-book indexes are prepared at the time
  of publication in order to aid in searching
  within the text at hand
• but they are not intended to provide
  bibliographic control for retrieval (i.e. are not
  retrieval tools, per se)

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Indexes contd

• Most index publishers use a thesaurus for the
  selection of terms to represent subjects
• Indexes can be found in both print and electronic
  form
• Most are created by for-profit organizations
• Users often approach info sources not with names
  (authors/titles) but with questions that require
  answers or a topic for study I.e.
  subject-oriented requests

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What is a subject (aboutness)?

• An area of interest
• An area in which a researcher or professional
  works
• An area in which an individual writes, or
• An area of knowledge which is studied
• But how do we define what a subject is about?
  How can our definitions differ?

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Indexing language a list of terms that may be
used as access points (3 types)

• Controlled indexing languages
• A person controls the terms used to represent
  subjects and assigns them to a document - often
  using a thesaurus
• Natural indexing languages
• A person or computer selects indexing terms based
  on the natural or ordinary language of the
  document
• Free indexing languages
• There are no constraints on the terms used in the
  indexing process
• Done by a person or computer

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Why Provide Subject Access?

• to show what a library, information source or
  database includes on a particular subject
• to show what a library, information source or
  database includes on related subjects

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Relationships between subjects

• Subordinate those terms which hierarchically
  fall under another term (NT in thesaurus)
• Superordinate the term that sits higher in the
  hierarchy (BT in thesaurus)
• Coordinate two subjects at the same level in
  the hierarchy

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Relationships between subjects (cont.)
Superordinate Computer games Broader
terms Games Indoor
games Indoor recreation Recreation
Subordinate Canada Narrower terms
Alberta British Columbia
Manitoba New Brunswick
Newfoundland Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia Ontario Prince
Edward Island Quebec
Saskatchewan Yukon Territory
Alberta and Manitoba are coordinate in the
hierarchy.
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Relationships between subjects

• Semantic relationships
• represent connections between associated subjects
  based on their meanings these are relatively
  stable relationships and reflect a consensus of
  opinion concerning their connections
• Syntactic relationships
• arise from the context of subjects in specific
  documents from the syntax these relationships
  are less permanent than semantic relationships

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Resources

• ERIC