Subject Access in the Digital Age Presented by Carol Bradsher

“Our users expect simplicity and immediate reward and Amazon, Google, and Itunes are the standards against which we are judged.” -- from the UC Libraries Bibliographic Services Task Force Report

Subject access issues Ease of use Cost Time

Controlled vocabulary problems Complexity, which impacts ability of catalogers to assign and general public to use No guidance on determining “aboutness” Inconsistency of heading assignment, influenced by subjectivity, cultural biases, differing perspectives of catalogers

Evaluating subject catalogs Recall Relevance Precision Exhaustivity Ease of use Cost

Advantages of keyword Greater recall Requires less knowledge to search Can access entire bibliographic record, table of contents, summary

Keyword assumptions 1. Authors writing about the same concepts will use the same words in their writings; 2. Searchers will be able to guess what words those authors used for the concepts

Language—the biggest obstacle for searching Synonyms Homographs Determining the meaning of words Changes in meaning Usage changes

Synonyms Words can have the same meaning, or not, e.g. Attire, dress, clothing Technical Services

Synonyms Singular vs. plural form doesn’t always have the same meaning Apple (fruit and/or tree) Apples (fruit only) Art (visual art) Arts (various subdisciplines including visual, literature, performing)

What about synonym lists? not large or general enough Implemented in small and specialized domains No knowledge of adjectives and nouns and which kind of words could be used together to make a phrase Aircraft = planes Big = large Big aircraft = large planes

Homographs Words that look the same but have different meanings: Mercury: liquid metal, planet, car, Roman God or Freddie Bridge: structure, dental device, card game, musical conveyance

Determining meaning Gay Sober Virginia Woolf discount

Changes in meaning Medal Goggles gay

Changes in usage Third world countries Creme rinse

Unforgiving keyword searches One word vs. two word forms, hyphenated words Singular vs. plural

Advantages of controlled vocabulary Can handle variations in language and terminology Synonyms Homographs Can combine terms into phrases, relate phrases to one another Cross reference structure to direct users to valid terms

Keyword’s biggest weakness “Subject analysis so far has defied automatic techniques such as word counting; only a human can attach words to a concept that is the subject of a document but is never explicitly named in that document.” -- Arlene Taylor