Guidelines and Principles for Developing Search and Browse Vocabularies May 31, 2003 Rice University Houston, TX Amy J. Warner, PhD

2 Epicurious.com

3 Navigation/Taxonomy Vehicle BrandsVehicle Parts CarsVehicle Accessories MR2Spider Carriers Celica Bicycle Carriers Matrix Ski Carriers Avalon Roof Racks Camry Solarus Splash Guards Camry Security Systems PriusTires Corolla ˚ ECHO ˚ SUVs/VansEngines & Transmissions Land Cruiser ˚ Sequoia ˚ ` 4 Runner Sienna Highlander RAV4 Trucks Tundra Tacoma Celica Brochure Camry Brochure

4 Synonym Rings Cholesterol Blood Cholesterol Serum Cholesterol Good Cholesterol Bad Cholesterol LDL.

5 Medline

6 MeSH & UMLS

7 Controlled Vocabulary Defined  A subset of natural language.  A list of preferred and (sometimes)variant terms.  With semantic relationships (hierarchical and associative) (sometimes) defined.  Used to tag document attributes (describe facets). –Topic / Subtopic –Audience –Language –Form  Or can be used to create labeling scheme for navigation.

8 Cornerstones of Vocabulary Control  Use unambiguous labels/search terms.  Make distinctions among labels/search terms clear.  Make choices about wording and specificity of labels/search terms based on user testing and on size of collection.  Use other semantic relationships (hierarchical, associative) if necessary to organize large lists of labels/search terms.

9 Continuum of Vocabulary Control Less More Synonym Control USE/Used for relationship Vehicle crashes USE Vehicle collisions Vehicle collisions UF Vehicle crashes Synonym Rings Vehicle collisions Vehicle crashes Crashes Collisions Hierarchical Relationships Broader/Narrower Terms Vehicle collisions NT Truck collisions Truck collisions BT Vehicle collisions Browse Categories Vehicle safety Truck safety Truck collisions Vehicle safety Site Index Taxonomies Associative Relationships Part/Whole Cause/Effect etc. Vehicle parts RT Vehicles Vehicles RT Vehicle parts

10 Steps in Controlled Vocabulary Construction  Group terms by subject (facet analysis)  Link synonyms and variants. Synonym Rings Vehicle collisions Vehicle crashes Crashes Collisions  Identify broader and narrower terms. Taxonomies / Hierarchies  Identify related terms. Thesauri

11 Purposes of Standard  Base choices on ‘best practice’.  Base choices on known principles.  Foster interoperability.

12 Current NISO Thesaurus Standard  Guidelines for the construction, format, and management of monolingual thesauri: Z  Not a technical standard, but a set of guidelines.  Emphasizes search thesauri.  Emphasizes postcoordinate retrieval.  Used mainly for abstracting and indexing services.  Does not put the standard in context.

13 Why Revise  Not revised since  Number of downloads high, reflecting interest.  Does not take the web environment into account. –Navigation schemes are controlled vocabularies too. –Is out of date in terms of computing technology in general: Software for managing thesauri has advanced. Software for leveraging thesauri though an interface has advanced.  Currently little attention paid to user testing.

14 Term forms  Currently –Emphasizes rigid rules for grammatical form. –Emphasizes short phrases as terms.  Suggested revision –Loosen rules on grammatical form. –Allow for longer, more complex phrases.  Rationale –Software can perform automatic stemming. –Navigation schemes are more precoordinate.

15 Semantic Relationships  Current standard –Only accounts for explicit equivalence relationships. –Hierarchical relationship only allowed for genus-species relationship, with a few exceptions. –Associative relationship only allowed across categories.  Proposed revision –Provide guidelines for choosing unambiguous labels. –Provide guidelines for loose, browse categories.  Rationale –Labeling schemes and pick lists often do not account for explicit synonymy relationships. –Hierarchical navigation schemes need to be less rigid.

16 Browse Categories

17 Usability Testing  Current standard –Discusses users but does not include guidelines for testing with users.  Proposed revision –Provide guidelines for open card sort testing of high level categories. –Provide guidelines for closed card sorting of term groups under high level categories.  Rationale –User testing important consideration for choose terms and term relationships.

18 Display  Current standard –Emphasizes print copies of thesauri. –Screen display section oriented toward display of print copy.  Proposed revision –Oriented more toward displays of vocabularies that only exist in digital format.  Rationale –Most web vocabularies do not have print counterparts.

19 Interoperability  Current standard –Does not address issues associated with interoperability  Proposed revision –Will address major issues and problems associated with interoperability, including multiple languages  Rationale –Being able to share information within and among organizations

20 Construction and Maintenance  Current standard –Emphasizes maintenance problems in print vocabularies. –Discusses software that manages stand-alone vocabularies.  Proposed revision –Advance standards for changing, adding, deleting terms automatically. –Provide guidance for software that is connected to information retrieval systems.  Rationale –Software has advanced significantly.

21 Process for Revising Standard  Appoint editor.  Appoint advisory group.  Draft revision.  Discuss drafts with advisory group.  Vote on final draft by NISO board.

22 Editor & Advisory Group  Amy Warner, lexonomy.com  Vivian Bliss, Microsoft  Carol Brent, ProQuest  John Dickert, U.S. DoD  Lynn El-Hoshy, Library of Congress  Emily Fayen, SDC liaison  Patricia Harpring, Getty  Stephen Hearn, American Library Association  Sabine Kuhn, American Chemical Society/Chemical Abstracts  Pat Kuhr, H.W. Wilson  Diane McKerlie, Design Strategy  Peter Morville, Semantic Studios  Stuart Nelson, National Library of Medicine  Diane Vizine-Goetz, OCLC  Marcia Lei Zeng, Special Libraries Association

23 Progress to Date  Agreement on scope of revision.  Agreement that guidelines should be placed in context.  Agreement that guidelines should be educational as well as prescribing best practice.  Agreement that guidelines should be forward looking in terms of new technologies.  Agreement to write guidelines for elements and features that all vocabularies have in common, then consider their differences.  Survey conducted to determine use of standard, other standards, software.

24 Other Players  Communication with editor of British Standard.  Communication and work with W3C to address issues of implementation of controlled vocabularies.

25 Relationship with Semantic Web and OWL  Semantic Web is an ontological framework.  Both terms in the ontology and the relationships between them are standardized using OWL (Web Ontology Language).  Both the terms and the relationships are ‘deep’ semantically.  This is a structure into which ‘shallower’ terms provided by using Z39.19 could be inserted.  This would enhance interoperability because although we would not have complete agreement on vocabularies, we would have agreement on an effective structure for exchanging them.

26 Contact Me Amy J. Warner