Topic
Cataloging
About: Cataloging is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4770 publications have been published within this topic receiving 32489 citations.
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TL;DR: William Stetson Merrill serves as an example of the archetypal information scientist who improvises and integrates methods from bibliography, cataloging, classification, and indexing to solve problems of information retrieval and design usable information products and services for human consumption.
Abstract: Purpose – This paper examines William Stetson Merrill, the compiler of A Code for Classifiers and a Newberry Library employee (1889‐1930) in an attempt to glean lessons for modern information studies from an early librarian's career. Design/methodology/approach – Merrill's career at the Newberry Library and three editions of the code are briefly examined using historical, bibliographic, and conceptual methods. Primary and secondary sources in archives and libraries are summarized to provide insight into Merrill's attempts to develop or modify tools to solve the knowledge organization problems he faced. The concept of bricolage, developed by Levi‐Strauss to explain modalities of thinking, is applied to Merrill's career. Excerpts from his works and reminisces are used to explain Merrill as a bricoleur and highlight the characteristics of bricolage. Findings – Findings show that Merrill worked collaboratively to collocate and integrate a variety of ideas from a diverse group of librarians such as Cutter, Pettee, Poole, Kelley, Rudolph, and Fellows. Bliss and Ranganathan were aware of the code but the extent to which they were influenced by it remains to be explored. Although this is an anachronistic evaluation, Merrill serves as an example of the archetypal information scientist who improvises and integrates methods from bibliography, cataloging, classification, and indexing to solve problems of information retrieval and design usable information products and services for human consumption. Originality/value – Bricolage offers great potential to information practitioners and researchers today as we continue to try and find user‐centered solutions to the problems of digital information organization and services.
11 citations
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TL;DR: The results show that a simple browsable retrieval interface performed as well as a second-generation OPAC in terms of retrieval speed and search success, and the overwhelming majority of students preferred the browsing capability of PACE through the familiar metaphor of books and library shelves to a text-based OPAC.
Abstract: PACE (Public Access Catalogue Extension) is an alternative interface designed to enhance online catalogs. PACE simulates images of books and library shelves to help users browse through the catalog. PACE was tested in a college library against a text-based, online public access catalog (Best-Seller) in a real operational environment. The results show that a simple browsable retrieval interface performed as well as a second-generation OPAC in terms of retrieval speed and search success. The overwhelming majority of students, however, preferred the browsing capability of PACE through the familiar metaphor of books and library shelves to a text-based OPAC. Today many information resources can be accessed through the virtual library, including many online public access catalogs (OPACs) with sophisticated retrieval engines. Research shows, however, that novice users encounter difficulties in interacting with these systems (Borgman 1986). Yee (1991) has summarized these problems as finding appropriate subject terms, large numbers of hits and failure to reduce the retrieval sets, zero hits and failure to increase the retrieval sets, failure to understand cataloging rules, and spelling and typographical errors. In addition, lack of understanding of indexes, files, and basic database structure leads to the use of articles, stop words, entering author's first name before last name, and hyphenation problems. The interface and retrieval systems can also be a source of potential problems. Complex interfaces and the need for training and relearning when used infrequently, incomprehensible error and help messages, problems associated with displaying records and difficulties with Boolean logic have compounded the obstacles encountered by novice users. These restraints have prompted one researcher to state that the second-generation OPACs are "powerful and efficient but are dumb, passive systems which require resourceful, active, intelligent human searchers to produce acceptable results" (Hildreth 1989). Suggested Solutions To address the needs of end users and to alleviate the mentioned difficulties, many researchers have conducted experiments to enhance and improve OPACs. In general, research in this area may be divided into two broad categories: enhancing MARC records, and improving the retrieval engine and the interface. Many researchers (Cochrane 1986, Drabenstott et al. 1990, Chan 1990, Pejtersen 1989, Lawrence 1985) have demonstrated the value of augmenting MARC records and the online catalog with various schemes such as the inclusion of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) schedules and relative indexes. Projects in Carnegie Mellon University and other institutions have attempted to enhance bibliographic records by adding table of contents of books (Greenwood 1989, Michalak 1990, Posey and Erdmann 1986). The addition of new information to MARC, however, can be very costly and unsuitable for individual libraries. Advancing the retrieval engine has involved ranking of documents, weighting index terms and automatic spell checking. Projects such as OKAPI (Online Keyword Access to Public Information) have attempted to use these techniques to build OPACs which do not require any user training (Greenwood 1989) Other researchers have strived to enhance the retrieval system by adding visual interfaces which use icons, graphical user interfaces, hypertext links and multimedia to help end users. Client/server architectures are used to take advantage of the power of today's microcomputers to present users with alternative interfaces. Kid's Catalog (Busey and Doerr 1993), OASIS (Buckland et al. 1992), Multimedia Visualizer (Lee 1991), the Science Library Catalog Project (Borgman et al. 1995) and XOkapi (Hancock-Beaulieu et.al. 1995) are just a few examples of these new interfaces. These OPACs are utilizing concepts that move users closer to direct manipulation of objects or documents. Hildreth (1989) states that these OPACs are more intuitive as the objects are manipulated directly "avoiding previous layers of mental encoding/decoding and indirect representation searchers are usually required to pass through. …
11 citations
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TL;DR: This report will explain key aspects about the SMPTE metadata work including the use of the Key-Length-Value (K-L-V) data coding protocol and the metadata dictionary and suggest that broadcast and similar operations will make significant moves into remote file and ‘web’ style access to program material through networked connections to libraries and on-line servers.
Abstract: This report is a review of the work of the SMPTE to standardize the use of metadata in broadcast and related industries. It will explain key aspects about the SMPTE metadata work including the use of the Key-Length-Value (K-L-V) data coding protocol and the metadata dictionary. Much of the SMPTE work is coordinated with other ongoing metadata work in such fora as the EBU, IFTA and MPEG-7 as all sections of the content production industry recognize that coordination of metadata activities is vital for its future cooperative development. he metadata work started in late 1997 within the T EBUBMPTE Task Force which had a mandate to recommend the future directions of the broadcast industry based on the clear trends towards digital equipment and the storage and transmission of digital television. This was not focused on emission where there were other standards bodies, but on program production and cataloging. The Task Force published its final report in September 1998’ and this work has laid the foundations of the metadata standardization activities within SMPTE which are the subject of this overview report. Metadata has been used for many years in all forms of transmission and storage. In broadcast operations, clapperboards and tape labels provided the core metadata describing such key metadata types as ‘program name,’ ‘episode,’ ‘recording time,’ and other similarly important labeling information. More recently, tapes have been bar-coded and the bar-code linked to a computer database for use in tape library systems. But much of this work has been limited to localized operations and not easily transferable between organizations. With increasing digitalization of whole systems based on compressed video and audio, there has been a trend towards the use of networking technologies through the use of ethernet, fibre-channel, and ATM connections. This, and other trends, suggests that broadcast and similar operations will make significant moves into remote file and ‘web’ style access to program material through networked connections to libraries and on-line servers. For such a vision to materialize, users recognized that a common method of defining metadata structures and types was required and the result of this is the ongoing SMPTE work to standardize both the metadata items and the methods of transferring the metadata over connections between various equipment.
11 citations
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TL;DR: The evolution of archival descriptive standards, beginning in the late 1970s, is described within the context of the development of the archival profession.
Abstract: SUMMARY Studies of professions emphasize various meansby which an occupation increases its authority over areas of activity within its jurisdiction. Development of standards and codification of knowledge are important stages in professionalization for any occupation. As technology became a more prevalent component of library bibliographic access, archivists began to seek ways to develop standards for archival description that would support information exchange and allow archives and manuscripts collections to be included in bibliographic utilities. This article describes the evolution of archival descriptive standards, beginning in the late 1970s, within the context of the development of the archival profession.
11 citations
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TL;DR: The inadequacy of current methods of access to works of fiction in academic and public libraries is discussed, and a rationale for providing enhanced catalog access to diction is presented.
Abstract: The inadequacy of current methods of access to works of fiction in academic and public libraries is discussed. A rationale for providing enhanced catalog access to diction is presented; the literature on subject-and-genre access to fiction is reviewed. A preliminary study in providing enhanced catalog access to fiction is described and its findings compared with a similar study conducted by the Subject Cataloging Division of the Library of Congress
11 citations