Module 1a: Course Overview and Logistics IMT530: Organization of Information Resources Winter 2007 Michael Crandall

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources2 Course Description Introduction to issues in organization of information and information objects including: analysis of intellectual and physical characteristics of information objects, use of metadata and metadata standards for information systems, technological frameworks supporting implementation of metadata standards and taxonomies.

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources3 Course Objectives Understand the basic nature and characteristics of information objects. Identify core issues in the selection, arrangement, and formation of metadata elements. Describe the basic purposes and processes of authority control. Analyze subjects on a conceptual level. Recognize and describe different types of classification schemes and controlled vocabularies. Understand basic types of arrangements and displays and various methods of arrangement.

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources4 Purpose of Course To ground you in the theory and practice of information description and organization –Comes from library and information science, so may seem a little foreign –Has many crossovers to database modeling, object-oriented programming, artificial intelligence Examples in textbook are library-centric, but lectures and readings will balance this Foundation for advanced metadata courses –Current LIS courses as well as new MSIM courses –Heart of information management

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources5 What You’ll be Learning History of information organization Important concepts, theories, and practices in information organization Information organization aspects of storage and retrieval systems Standards, techniques, and tools used in information organization A user-centered approach to information organization

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources6 Course Overview Refer to syllabus for details, on course website – Week 1 –Course overview –Characteristics of information objects Week 2 –Information systems –Modeling information objects and relationships Week 3 –Ontologies –Metadata standards and schemas

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources7 Course Overview (cont.) Week 4 –Application profiles –Description and access Week 5 –Authority control and encoding schemes –Subject analysis and subject indexing Week 6 –Introduction to controlled vocabularies –Social tagging

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources8 Course Overview (cont.) Week 7 –Creating controlled vocabularies –Semantic factoring and relationships Week 8 –Facet analysis –Metadata in action Week 9 –Construction of numerical classification schemes –Issues in classification Week 10 –Information displays and arrangement –Course wrapup

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources9 Logistics Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30-3:20 in MGH 251 Most days will be two parts A lecture on the topic and discussion of readings A practical exercise to apply the knowledge Read the materials ahead of time!!! –Required text is available at UW bookstore –Other readings on electronic reserve or the web –You’ll need them to understand the lectures and complete the in-class exercises

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources10 Assignments and Grading In-class group exercises –20% of grade, due at end of each class –4.0 if you complete and turn all of them in –Points deducted if incomplete or missing Individual assignment –80% of grade –Part 1 and 2 start weeks 4 and 5, due at beginning of class week 6 –Part 3 assigned week 7, due on March 8th –Details on the web site, along with templates – /assignments.shtmlhttp://courses.washington.edu/imt530/assignments /assignments.shtml

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources11 Questions?

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources12 Exercise 1 (Part 1) Form groups of 4 (or 5) –These will be your in-class working groups for the quarter, so remember your partners We’ll reconvene in 20 minutes to discuss your results Ask questions and talk!!! We will do Part 2 at end of class –Remember to turn in your worksheets –No credit unless you turn them in!!

Module 1b: Nature and Characteristics of Information Objects IMT530: Organization of Information Resources Winter 2007 Michael Crandall

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources14 What is an Information Object? Think of David Levy’s example of a cash register receipt –Throwaway piece of paper that is rich in information –Where did the information come from? –Is the object the only actor in this scenario? “Within its local circumstances, what kind of a thing is it? What work is it doing, and why is it doing it?”

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources15 What is an Information Object? Buckland’s paper discusses critical issue here: –“mechanical information systems can only operate on physical representations of “information”” Otlet and Briet extend this further: –Placing an object in an organized, meaningful relationship with other evidence gives an object status as a “document”

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources16 Implications Buckland quotes Patrick Wilson: –“Information systems can be used not in finding material that already is in evidence, but also in arranging material so that someone may be able to make use of it as (new) evidence for some purpose” Design of information systems needs to consider both the characteristics of the objects and the needs of the users

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources17 Characteristics of Information Objects How do you go about defining these? Long experience in library science –Developed from need to provide access to physical objects –Practice-based methodology –Includes administrative/descriptive as well as subject access points –Transplanted to digital world with introduction of online catalogs- MARC Machine-Readable Cataloging- –In recent years, efforts to provide logical models have begun- FRBR is example Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources18 A View of the FRBR Model

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources19 Purpose of Metadata Taylor lists 6 functions from Hagler’s work- focused on libraries, but apply more broadly to any information system –Identifying the existence of objects –Collecting parts into wholes –Creating collections of objects –Producing lists of these objects –Providing access points for the objects –Locating the objects for use

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources20 Examples Library catalogs –King County Library –UW Libraries Digital libraries –Peking University Digital Library –New York Botanical Garden bin/nybg.exehttp://image2.nybg.org/cgi- bin/nybg.exe –Internet Public Library Indexes –UW Libraries research databases Search engines –Google –Ask Websites –MSIM

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources21 Steps in Information Organization Decide what to organize – the objects themselves, or representations/descriptions of them– and how they will be represented and organized Select or create techniques, tools, and standards for specific user group(s) and specific resource types to support creation of resource representations and organizations Create resource representations/descriptions Organize, retrieve, and display resource representations or resources Provide access to resources

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources22 Why Organize? Different collections Different user needs Different systems The techniques and theory we’ll learn this quarter will help you to analyze and understand these three components Think about the subjects in a context that makes sense to you Remember that it took us a long time to get this far, and the lessons learned along the way are important

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources23 Questions??

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources24 Exercise 1 (Part 2) Regroup in your exercise teams We’ll reconvene in 20 minutes to discuss your results Ask questions and talk!!! Be sure to hand in completed work at the end of class for credit!!!

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources25 Wrapup In context of creating information systems: –The descriptive characteristics you select depend on which resources you are working with –Objects have different characteristics and different types of characteristics –Rules for one type of object may not be appropriate for other objects –Relationship between the resource characteristics and the attributes people ask for; it is likely that resource characteristics influence what people ask for about them –Would be a challenge to develop rules for description for systems that include many types of objects

IMT530A Organization of Information Resources26 Next Week Information Systems and Information Retrieval Systems Modeling information objects and relationships Remember to read Week 2 assignments BEFORE class Have a great weekend!!