Languages for aboutness

1
Languages for aboutness

• Language
• A systematic arrangement of concepts
• What makes a language systematic?
• What makes an indexing language systematic?

2
Languages for aboutness

• Indexing languages
• Terminological tools
• Thesauri (CV controlled vocabulary)
• Subject headings lists (CV)
• Authority files for named entities (people,
  places, structures, organizations)
• Classification / Classificatory systems
• Keyword lists
• Natural language systems (broad interpretation)

3
Translating Aboutness

• Subject Access to Information through
• Evaluate, assess
• Translate to where in the language system
• Assign the descriptor (term, class notation, code)

4
Subject Analysis

• What something is about?
• What the content of an object is about?
• Different methods (Wilson, 1968)
• Counting (objective method) (White House)
• Purposive method (Machiavelli)
• Method appealing to unity (Male, partisan pol.)
• What stands out (War, inflation)
• Challenges
• Non-text (Aesthetics/taste,
• iconography/symbolism )

5
Aboutness How to do it!

• Read the document Intellectual reading
• look for key features
• many indexers mark up the items
• rarely have time to read the whole document
• Determine aboutness Conceptual analysis
• Translate aboutness into the vocabulary or scheme
  you are using
• In general Subject headings 1-3 headings
• Descriptors, 5-8 descriptors
• Classification 1 notation.

6
Features of indexing languages

• Involve rules and require maintenance
• Can be generated via automatic, human, or
  auto-human processes
• Different processes generally display different
  strengths and weaknesses.

7
Features of indexing languages

• With the exception of a few general domain tools,
  they are generally domain specific.
• NAL Thesaurus
• Asian Vegetables Thesaurus
• Florida Environments Online
• http//www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/thes/thes
  _links.html
• Concepts (or concept representations) are
  arranged in a discernable order?

8
Language schema designs

• Classified (grouping)
• Hierarchies and facets
• NAL Thesaurus
• http//agclass.nal.usda.gov/agt/agt.htm
• AAT
• http//www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/
  vocabularies/aat/
• Alphabetical (ordering)
• Asian Vegetables
• http//www.nre.vic.gov.au/trade/asiaveg/thes-00.ht
  m
• Florida Environments Online Thesaurus
• http//susdl.fcla.edu/lfnh/thesauri/feol2/

9
Controlled Vocabulary

• A list or a database of subject terms in which
  each concept has a preferred terms or phrase that
  will be used to represent it in the retrieval
  tool the terms not used have references
  (syndetic structure), and often scope notes.
• jg adapted this definition from Taylor,
  Organizing Information. (2001).

10
Thesaurus (structured thesaurus)

• Lexical semantic relationships
• Composed of indexing terms/descriptors
• Descriptors - representations of concepts
• Concepts - Units of meaning (Svenonius)
• ? Algorithmic/similarity thesauri (created via
  machine processing)

11
Thesaurus

• Preferred terms
• Non-preferred terms
• Semantic relations between terms
• How to apply terms (guidelines, rules)
• Scope notes
• Adding terms (How to produce terms that are not
  listed explicitly in the thesaurus)

12
Preferred Terms, issues(see handout)

• Control form of the term
• Spelling, grammatical form
• Theatre / Theater
• MLA / Modern language association
• Choose preferred term between synonyms
• Dress or Clothing?

13
Common thesaural identifiers

• SN Scope Note
• Instruction, e.g. dont invert phrases
• USE Use (another term in preference to this one)
• UF Used For
• BT Broader Term
• NT Narrower Term
• RT Related Term

14
Semantic Relationships

• Hierarchy
• Equivalence
• Association

15
Hierarchies of Meaning
Beer Glass

White wine glass

Glass

Wine Glass

Red wine glass

From Controlled Vocabularies/ Paul Miller
Interoperability Focus UKOLN
16
Hierarchy

• Level of generality both preferred terms
• BT (broader term)
• Robins BT Birds
• NT (narrower term)
• Birds NT Robins
• Inheritance, very specific rules

17
Equivalence

• When two or more terms represent the same concept
• One is the preferred term (descriptor), where all
  the information is collected
• The other is the non-preferred and helps the user
  to find the appropriate term

18
Equivalence

• Non-preferred term USE Preferred term
• Nuclear Power USE Nuclear Energy
• Periodicals USE Serials
• Preferred term UF (used for) Non-preferred term
• Nuclear Energy UF Nuclear Power
• Serials UF Periodicals

19
Association

• One preferred term is related to another
  preferred term
• Non-hierarchical
• See also function
• In any large thesaurus, a significant umber of
  terms will mean similar things or cover related
  areas, without necessarily being synonyms or
  fitting into a defined hierarchy

20
Association

• Related Terms (RT) can be used to show these
  links within the thesaurus
• Bed RT Bedding
• Paint Brushes RT Painting
• Vandalism RT Hostility
• Programming RT Software

21
Thesauri Guides

• National Information Standards Organization.
  (2005). Guidelines for the construction, format,
  and management of monolingual thesauri. ANSI/NISO
  Z39.19-2005. Bethesda, MD NISO Press.
  http//www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-19-200
  5.pdf?CFID5559601CFTOKEN31747314
• Aitchison, Jean Gilchirist, Alan. Thesaurus
  Construction A Practical Guide. 3rd ed. London
  Aslib, 1997.
• Willpower Information Management Consultants
  http//www.willpower.demon.co.uk/thesprin.htm

22
Thesauri Directory

• Indexing Resources on the WWW
• http//www.slais.ubc.ca/resources/indexing/databas
  e1.htm
• Controlled vocabularies
• http//sky.fit.qut.edu.au/middletm//cont_voc.html

23
Thesaurify

• Apples
• Fruit
• Apple pie
• Bosh pears
• Oranges
• Vegetables
• Bartlett pears
• Pears
• Fruit stand

24
PrinciplesSpecificity

• Most specific words or phrase expressing the
  subject
• A book about cats
• Under Cats
• And not under Domestic Animals
• Or Mammals
• Or Zoology

25
Exhaustivity

• Two degrees
• Summarization
• Library Cataloging
• Dublin Core
• The whole Journal of the ACM
• Depth indexing
• An individual books index
• More intricate metadata schemas
• Individual articles from the Journal of the ACM
• Yahoo Weather index http//weather.yahoo.com/

26
Coextensivity

• Coextensivity - assign as many terms as needed to
  bring out the main theme, and according to
  guidelines sub-themes. (p. 29, Lancaster)
• nothing more, nothing less
• a single descriptor, or a single term is rarely
  coextensive
• Electronic purchasing/buying for air travel
• Electronic commerce/shopping and Air travel
• Risk factor or safety with SUVs
• Car safety and SUVs

27
Warrants

• End-user warrant
• language of the user
• Literary Warrant
• System reflect the language of the literature

28
Coordinate Indexing

• Precoordinate indexing
• terms are chosen and coordinate at the time of
  indexing or cataloging - Subject Headings
• Wireless home computer network
• (Syntagmatic relationships)
• Postcoordinate indexing
• indexing terms entered discretely and combined by
  the searcher at the time of searching - Thesauri
• Keyword Searching using Boolean Operators
• Wireless network home computer
• (Paradigmatic relationships)

29
Subject Heading Lists

• Summarization (use of as many terms as required
  to summarize the content)
• Precoordinate
• E.g., Drug abuse treatment in Britain
• Drug abuse Treatment Great Britain (LCSH)
• Thesaurus Drug Abuse and Therapy or
  Treatment and Great Britain or Drug Abuse
  Therapy and GB) facets
• Significance order (from the most important
  heading to the least important heading)

30
Subject Heading Lists

• Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
• Sears List of Subject Headings (Sears0
• Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

31

• Thesauri
• Created according to standards
• Z39.19 (ANSI/NISO)
• Single term concepts/postcoordination
• Wireless network home computer
• Terrorism Attacks United States
• More popular in the online environment
• Lend to recall
• Lend to multilingual environment

• Subject Heading Lists
• Rules and guidelines
• Thesaurification
• multi-word concepts/pre-coordination
• Wireless home computer network
• y Terrorism attacks z United States
• STRINGS
• Lend to precision