Subject Access Points Research Articles

A Text Mining Approach to Uncover the Structure of Subject Metadata in the Biodiversity Heritage Library

ABSTRACTWe propose a bottom‐up, data‐driven pipeline to uncover the structure of biodiversity subject metadata using a combination of text mining approaches. In this study, we analyze 721,035 subject terms in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). We utilize named entity recognition and word‐embedding methods to systematically label and group terms based on their vector‐space distances. The results show that the subject terms from BHL are clustered into several prominent themes relating to environmental regulations, geographic locations, organisms, and subject access points. We hope that our approach can serve as a first step to group similar subject terms together in large‐scale, constant growing digital collections with aggregated metadata from multiple sources. Ultimately, we hope the next phases of this project can become a basis for biodiversity digital libraries to standardize their vocabularies.

Citation Indexing and Indexes

A citation index is a bibliographic database that provides citation links between documents. The first modern citation index was suggested by the researcher Eugene Garfield in 1955 and created by him in 1964, and it represents an important innovation to knowledge organization and information retrieval. This article describes citation indexes in general, considering the modern citation indexes, including Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Crossref, Dimensions and some special citation indexes and predecessors to the modern citation index like Shepard’s Citations. We present comparative studies of the major ones and survey theoretical problems related to the role of citation indexes as subject access points (SAP), recognizing the implications to knowledge organization and information retrieval. Finally, studies on citation behavior are presented and the influence of citation indexes on knowledge organization, information retrieval and the scientific information ecosystem is recognized.

Form Subdivisions for Curriculum Materials

Several formats found in curriculum collections do not have representation as Library of Congress form subdivisions. There are form subdivisions that are appropriate for books, such as Juvenile fiction, Dictionaries, and Textbooks. However, form subdivision options are limited for formats such as audiovisuals, games, and kits. There may be appropriate topical subdivisions, but they cannot be used as form subdivisions. With terms adapted from Library of Congress Subject Headings, topical Free-floating Subdivisions, and references related to those vocabularies, this paper promotes increasing the availability of authorized form subdivisions for use in subject access points for curriculum materials.

Identity and Access Management for Libraries

ABSTRACTLinked open data will cause libraries to transition from authority control creating text strings to identity and access management using identifiers to select a single identity. The key step for libraries moving into linked open data for identity and access management is to correct thousands of incorrect names and subject access points in our online catalogs. This article describes a case study of the process of cleaning up unauthorized access points for personal and corporate names in the University of Illinois Library online catalog. This article is meant to help readers from other libraries prepare for linked open data environment.

Transforming the CIP Data Block: Assessing User Needs to Re-envision a Venerable Library Icon

ABSTRACTBetween 2013 and 2015, the Library of Congress and experts from school, public, and academic library communities revised the 42-year-old Cataloging in Publication (CIP) data block (back-of-title-page cataloging data). This article describes the assessments, including development and analysis of two surveys, used in this data-driven process. The revised data block replaces the catalog card layout with a labeled layout that identifies components within the block, merges print and electronic information, and provides additional descriptive and subject access points. A 2017 follow-up assessment confirmed the project's success in meeting the needs of its principal users, those in school and public libraries.

The Interplay of Big Data, WorldCat, and Dewey

As the premier example of big data in the bibliographic world, WorldCat has the potential to support knowledge discovery in many arenas. After giving evidence for a big data characterization of WorldCat, the paper explores this knowledge discovery potential from two perspectives related to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system: (1) how WorldCat data can inform development of the DDC (classification analytics) and (2) how DDC-classified content in WorldCat can shed light on the bibliographic world itself (collection analytics). In the realm of classification analytics, WorldCat data support decisions to modify the DDC by expanding or reducing the number of classes, adding topical coverage, or adding subject access points; data analysis can support recognition of (1) trending topics and (2) the faceted structure of subject domains. In the realm of collection analytics, the paper considers as possible applications the use of the DDC in the topical "fingerprinting" of categorized content in WorldCat or in performing a bibliographic gap analysis.

Subject Access Points in the MARC Record and Archival Finding Aid: Enough or Too Many?

ABSTRACT In this research project, the authors set out to discover the current practice in both the archival and cataloging worlds for usage of access points in descriptive records and to learn how archival descriptive practices fit into long-established library cataloging procedures and practices. A sample of archival finding aids and MARC records at 123 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions were examined to determine if finding aids and catalog records had the same or similar number of access points. The research also provided additional data regarding description of archival materials in these libraries.

Fundamentals of Knowledge Organization

This article is organized in 10 sections: (1) Knowledge Organization (KO) is a wide interdisciplinary field, much broader than Library and Information Science (LIS). (2) Inside LIS there have been many different approaches and traditions of KO with little mutual influence. These traditions have to a large extent been defined by new technology, for which reason the theoretical integration and underpinning has not been well considered. The most important technology-driven traditions are: a) Manual indexing and classification in libraries and reference works, b) Documentation and scientific communication, c) Information storage and retrieval by computers, d) Citation based KO and e) Full text, hypertext and Internet based approaches. These traditions taken together define very much the special LIS focus on KO. For KO as a field of research it is important to establish a fruitful theoretical frame of reference for this overall field. This paper provides some suggestions. (3) One important, theoretical distinction to consider is the one between social and intellectual forms of KO. Social forms of KO are related to professional training, disciplines and social groups while intellectual organization is related to concepts and theories in the fields to be organized. (4) The social perspective includes in addition the systems of genres and documents as well as the social system of knowledge producers, knowledge intermediaries and knowledge users. (5) This social system of documents, genres and agents makes available a very complicated structure of potential subject access points (SAPs), which may be used in information retrieval (IR). The basic aim of research in KO is to develop knowledge on how to optimise this system of SAPs and its utilization in IR. (6) SAPs may be seen as signs, and their production and use may be understood from a social semiotic point of view. (7) The concept of paradigms is also helpful because different groups and interests tend to be organized according to a paradigm and to develop different criteria of relevance, and thus different criteria of likeliness in KO. (8) The basic unit in KO is the semantic relation between two concepts, and such relations are embedded in theories. (9) In classification like things are grouped together, but what is considered similar is not a trivial question. (10) The paper concludes with the considering of methods for KO. Basically the methods of any field are connected with epistemological theories. This is also the case with KO. The existing methods as described in the literature of KO fit into a classification of basic epistemological views. The debate about the methods of KO at the deepest level therefore implies an epistemological discussion.

Improving access in bilingual, biscript catalogues through Arabised authority control

Describes some of the information retrieval issues faced by Arab libraries with bilingual (Arabic/English), biscript (Arabic/Latin) catalogues. Reviews earlier published work on multiscript bibliographic databases before focusing on controlled name and subject access points, including suggestions for how best to serve the information needs of a group of end‐users who are predominantly native Arabic‐speakers.

PCC Core Records versus PCC Full Records: Differences in Access?

ABSTRACT Using a set of bibliographic records from the OCLC database, records meeting PCC core standard are compared with those meeting PCC full standard. Significant statistical differences are derived for occurrence of specific name and subject access points in core and full records. Implications for OPAC access may inform libraries' policies regarding incorporation of core records in copy cataloging procedures.

Redundancy and Uniqueness of Subject Access Points in Online Catalogs

An analysis of 205 records selected at random from the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Online Union Catalog showed considerable overlap (duplication) among the subject access points provided by the title, subject heading, and classification number fields. Little more than four unique (unduplicated) access points were found, on average, per record. While title and class number fields do add some access points not provided by subject headings, the increase is less than many librarians might have expected. It is suggested that the online catalog might outperform the card catalog more in precision than in recall.

Toward a new horizon in information science: Domain-analysis

This article is a programmatic article, which formulates a new approach to information science (IS): domain-analysis. This approach states that the most fruitful horizon for IS is to study the knowledge-domains as thought or discourse communities, which are parts of society's division of labor. The article is also a review article, providing a multidisciplinary description of research, illuminating this theoretical view. The first section presents contemporary research in IS, sharing the fundamental viewpoint that IS should be seen as a social rather than as a purely mental discipline. In addition, important predecessors to this view are mentioned and the possibilities as well as the limitations of their approaches are discussed. The second section describes recent transdisciplinary tendencies in the understanding of knowledge. In bordering disciplines to IS, such as educational research, psychology, linguistics, and the philosophy of science, an important new view of knowledge is appearing in the 1990s. This new view of knowledge stresses the social, ecological, and content-oriented nature of knowledge. This is opposed to the more formal, computer-like approaches that dominated in the 1980s. The third section compares domain-analysis to other major approaches in IS, such as the cognitive approach. The final section outlines important problems to be investigated, such as how different knowledge-domains affect the informational value of different subject access points in data bases. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Enhanced Subject Access in Ohio Public Libraries

This article reports the findings of a survey of heads of cataloging in Ohio public libraries. The survey focused on subject enhancements in automated catalogs. Results reveal that additional subject access points and more anaytical entries ranked as the most useful enhancements for patrons. These enhancements were seen as less useful for technical services staff.

Report on Linking Subject Headings to LC Classification Numbers and Suggestions for Automating the Classification Schedules for the Explicit Purpose of Improving Subject Access in Online Public Access Catalogs

The average Library of Congress (LC) MARC record in today's online catalog provides a very limited number of subject access points. Certainly keywords can be extracted from the subject headings and the title but in both cases these reflect the aboutness of the book rather than its information content. The terms tend to be very broad and the size of the available vocabulary is very restricted. The justification for this is of course that the subject headings provide a grouping function.