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Eric Lease Morgan | 1 Apr 05:02
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Re: word tools

On Mar 31, 2008, at 2:24 PM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:

> It points to another example of how a word tool
> could be used as a part of a "next generation"
> library catalog.

I read/parsed more of the FRED authority data, indexed it, and
stuffed it into a DICT server. It now includes subject term, personal
name, corporate name, and geographic name authorities. Try the
following URLs and they will each return a sort of "tag cloud",
albeit pretty huge ones:

   * blues - http://tinyurl.com/yt2db7
   * lancaster - http://tinyurl.com/yw5hdr
   * librarianship - http://tinyurl.com/2baoxg

Each of the hotlinked words/phrases could either return a definition
of itself for be used to search a catalog/index of content.

--
Eric Lease Morgan
University Libraries of Notre Dame
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Lorna Young | 2 Apr 11:02
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Lorna Young is out of the office.

I will be out of the office starting  03/26/2008 and will not return until
04/03/2008.

I will respond to your message when I return.  For DebtCollect inquiries
please contact Lila Saab.
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Emily Lynema | 2 Apr 17:43
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Re: [Fwd: NGC4LIB Digest - 30 Mar 2008 to 31 Mar 2008 (#2008-67)]

Sorry, that was an unintentional send!  How embarrassing.

In the context of this discussion, just wanted to note that we've
experimented with the idea of using the uncontrolled text in
bibliographic records (like title and table of contents) to point users
to possibly relevant subject headings that have been assigned to the
records retrieved for their natural language search. It works well for
some types of searches, but not as well for others.

The 'revolutionary war' search problem is a good example (neither of
those terms are used in the relevant subject heading[s]). In our
pre-alpha system, the first suggested heading for this search is "United
States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Pictorial works." and the fourth
is the broader "United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783." Our
collection, with its US bias, is going to steer what headings are
suggested to the user, although the second heading suggested is
"France--History--Revolution, 1789-1799." and the list also contains the
generic heading "Revolutions."

The one problem I'm not sure about with generic dictionary tools is
whether we will end up suggesting terms and topics to our users that
don't exist within our local collections. Is that a bad thing? I can see
the advantages of using the data within your own collection for
suggesting more appropriate terminology in that it will lead users to
fewer dead ends.

-emily lynema
NCSU Libraries

Emily Lynema wrote:
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Ross Singer | 2 Apr 18:21
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Re: [Fwd: NGC4LIB Digest - 30 Mar 2008 to 31 Mar 2008 (#2008-67)]

On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 11:43 AM, Emily Lynema <emily_lynema <at> ncsu.edu> wrote:

>  The one problem I'm not sure about with generic dictionary tools is
>  whether we will end up suggesting terms and topics to our users that
>  don't exist within our local collections. Is that a bad thing? I can see
>  the advantages of using the data within your own collection for
>  suggesting more appropriate terminology in that it will lead users to
>  fewer dead ends.

This is an interesting point (and not isolated to this use case).
Libraries with larger collections (and therefore more comprehensive
subject coverage) are also more likely to have the resources to be
able to build and maintain a customized dictionary with the subjects
that are actually in their collection.  On the flip side, smaller
libraries are *less* likely to have such resources, yet the potential
of irrelevant subject matches from a generic subject dictionary
service would be increased due to their smaller collections.

I have no idea how to reconcile this tension (same exists for spelling
corrections or author names), but it's something to consider.

-Ross.
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Eric Lease Morgan | 2 Apr 18:52
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Re: [dictionary tools]

On Apr 2, 2008, at 11:43 AM, Emily Lynema wrote:

> In the context of this discussion, just wanted to note that we've
> experimented with the idea of using the uncontrolled text in
> bibliographic records (like title and table of contents) to point
> users
> to possibly relevant subject headings that have been assigned to the
> records retrieved for their natural language search. It works well for
> some types of searches, but not as well for others.
>
> [example deleted]
>
> The one problem I'm not sure about with generic dictionary tools is
> whether we will end up suggesting terms and topics to our users that
> don't exist within our local collections. Is that a bad thing? I
> can see
> the advantages of using the data within your own collection for
> suggesting more appropriate terminology in that it will lead users to
> fewer dead ends.

There are obviously advantages and disadvantages of using generic
dictionary tools versus dictionaries created from local collections.
Personally, I don't think there is a single right answer to the
question, but after a bit of systematic experimentation a best
practices approach might emerge.

--
Eric Lease Morgan
University Libraries of Notre Dame
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Karim Boughida | 3 Apr 01:30
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Job Posting: Resource Description Coordinator (George Washington University, Washington DC, USA)

Posted on behalf of Gelman Library, George Washington University
(Washington DC, USA).

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES A SEARCH FOR
A Resource Description Coordinator

POSITION: RESOURCE DESCRIPTION COORDINATOR
LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT:  THE GELMAN LIBRARY SYSTEM
PRIMARY LOCATION: THE GELMAN LIBRARY

APPOINTMENT RANK AND SALARY: Appointment at the rank of Librarian II
(minimum salary $45,000 or Librarian III, minimum salary, $50,000).
Rank and salary based on qualifications and experience.

The Resource Description Coordinator is a member of a
dynamically-evolving Digital and Technology Services Department and
assumes overall responsibility for cataloging policy and production.
The Resource Description Unit is one of three primary units within
Technical Services, and is responsible for describing and providing
access to serial and monographic content in all formats.  MARC and
Non-MARC catalog records are created in this unit, keeping pace with
shifting library priorities.  The Resource Description Coordinator
reports to the Head of Technical Services, who in turn reports to the
Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Technical
Services.  This position is part of the Technical Services Management
Team which coordinates departmental policies, procedures and
workflows.

The coordinator will supervise a small group of professionals and
paraprofessionals and will evolve a futuristic, fast paced,
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Martha Yee | 3 Apr 16:03
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Information access instead of experimentation

Here is an interesting article about a scientific advance that was made based on good information
organization rather than based on experimentation.

Martha

Martha M. Yee
Cataloging Supervisor
UCLA Film & Television Archive
myee <at> ucla.edu

GOING BY THE BOOK
Jan 10th 2008

A group of Chinese scientists has discovered the main biochemical
pathways in drug addiction--and without having to do a single experiment

MODERN biology has a lot of "omes". The genome--all the genes that go
to make up an organism--is a familiar idea. The proteome--all the
different proteins--is becoming so. But there are also the
transcriptome (RNA), the glycome (sugars), the lipidome (fats) and the
metabolome (all the miscellaneous odds and ends not covered by the
others). And then there is the bibliome--all the mentions in research
papers of known biomolecules. There are now so many of these papers,
and the databases linking them are so good, that it is possible to use
scientific methods to investigate the bibliome in its own right, just
as any of the other, wetter "omes" may be investigated. Which is
exactly what a group of researchers from Peking University, led by Wei
Liping, have done to get at the biochemical heart of drug addiction.

Dr Wei and her colleagues wanted to answer three questions. First, what
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Jonathan Blackburn | 3 Apr 20:31
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FSU Looking for an Associate Director of Library Technology

(Please excuse the cross-posting.)

Florida State University Libraries, in Tallahassee, Florida, has
posted a position announcement for an Associate Director of Library
Technology.

Information about the position and how you can apply can be found
here: http://www.lib.fsu.edu/files/pdfs/PD_AD_LibraryTech_53918_04.03.08.pdf

-Jon

Jonathan Blackburn
Web Development Librarian
Florida State University Libraries
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Eric Lease Morgan | 4 Apr 18:08
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Re: word tools

For a good time, I think I'm going to create something tentatively
called OPAC Helper, and it will be a word tool. The purpose of the
tool will be to aid people in the use of library authority records.
This is how it will work:

   1. Enter a word or phrase to search or browse a
      dictionary/thesaurus of authority headings.

   2. Search/browse results will return a number
      of characteristics such as:

       o heading with record and class number
       o definitions
       o synonyms
       o see from references
       o see also references

   3. Go to Step #1 until a relevant heading
      is identified.

   4. Search and display records from a remote
      catalog by combining the authority
      headings with standard query APIs
      (such as SRU).

   5. Go to Step #1 until satisfied.

To implement this idea I will:

   1. Download authority data from FRED. [1]
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Trish Culkin | 4 Apr 18:25
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Re: word tools

-----Original Message-----
From: "Riley, Jenn" <jenlrile <at> INDIANA.EDU>
To: NGC4LIB <at> LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Sent: 3/31/08 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] word tools

> Automatic expansion is a dangerous except when the number of
> retrievals is relatively small. Seems like a better way to go
> would be is to give what was requested, but use something
> along the lines of wikipedia's disambiguation pages to help
> direct the user to other contexts. I agree in principle that
> a good system should automatically adjust the search in
> intelligent ways.

The research I know of in this area suggests automatic expansion is effective for synonyms and narrower
terms, and that providing users with a way to expand on request broader and related terms. I get these two
articles confused sometimes, but at least one of them talks about this issue at length, and I think they're
a good place to start:

Greenberg, J. (2001a), "Automatic query expansion via lexical-semantic relationships", Journal of
the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 52 No. 6, pp. 402-15.

Greenberg, J. (2001b), "Optimal query expansion (QE) processing methods with semantically
encoded structured thesauri terminology", Journal of the American Society for Information
Science and Technology, Vol. 52 No. 6, pp. 487-98.

I agree the landscape gets much more complex when you have the variety of meanings Eric used in his examples -
the "did you mean" approach for multiple senses of a query makes sense to me.

Jenn
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