Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries1 What, Where, When, and Who: A Renaissance for the Reference Collection Michael Buckland School of Information Management & Systems and Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, University of California, Berkeley Ohio State University Libraries, November 15, 2005

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries2 In a paper library the reference collection is arranged in convenient categories and for making notes on... What, When, Where, Who, Why, and How using specialist genres of reference works: General and subject areas: Dictionaries and encyclopedias Geography section: Atlases and gazetteers History section: Chronologies and time-lines Biography section: Who’s whos, biographical dictionaries etc. This has become more difficult in a digital environment.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries3 WHAT? Searching by topic, e.g. Dewey, LCSH, any subject index, or category scheme. Two kinds of mapping in every search: Documents are assigned to topic categories, e.g. Dewey Queries have to map to topic categories, e.g. Dewey’s Relativ Index from ordinary words/phrases to Decimal Classification numbers. Also mapping between topic systems, e.g. US Patent classification and International Patent Classification.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries4 Text Numeric datasets It is difficult to move between different media forms.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries5 TextTHESAURUS MapsGAZETTEERCaptionsNumeric datasets Different media can be linked indirectly via metadata, but sometimes (e.g. for socio-economic numeric data series) you also need to specify WHERE.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries6 WHERE. Geo-temporal search interface. Place names found in documents. Gazetteer provided lat. & long. Places displayed on map. Timebar 

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries7 Zoom on map. Click on place for a list of records. Click on record to display text.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries8 WHERE Place names are problematic: - Variant forms : St. Petersburg, Санкт Петербург, Saint- Pétersbourg,... - Multiple names: Cluj, in Romania / Roumania / Rumania, is also called Klausenburg and Kolozsvar. - Names changes : Bombay  Mumbai. - Homographs :Vienna, VA, and Vienna, Austria; 50 Springfields. - Anachronisms : No Germany before Vague, e.g. Midwest, Silicon Valley - Unstable boundaries : 19th century Poland; Balkans; USSR. Use a gazetteer!

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries9 A catalog record: Isle of Man Tramways. ISBN enkabh, b,fe eng Country of publication code for England 043 a e-uik– Geographic Area Code. The cataloger has erroneously used the “Country Code” used in field 008, instead of the Geographic Area Code prescribed for 043. Should be e-uk-ui for “Europe. Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies” a TF764.M27 b P Geographic code embedded in Library of Congress Classification number a 388.4/6/ Geographic code embedded in Dewey Decimal Classification number a Pearson, Frederick Keith. Author a Isle of Man tramways, c by F. K. Pearson;… Place name used adjectivally in title. 260 a Newton Abbot : b David & Charles, c Place of publication, not in the Isle of Man. 500 a Imprint covered by label: A. M. Kelley, New York. Note that Place of publication obscured a Manx Electric Railway Company. Adjective for Isle of Man used in corporate name used as subject heading a Street-railroads z Man, Isle of. Geographic subdivision using inverted form of name. The island known as Man is represented six different ways, three searchable.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries10 Catalogs and gazetteers should talk to each other! Geographic sort / display of catalog search result. Catalog search Gazetteer search

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries11 Ask the gazetteer where Urbana is?

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries12 TextTHESAURUS MapsGAZETTEERCaptionsNumeric datasets Proper place name control requires a gazetteer -- and latitude and longitude allow points on maps.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries13 WHEN. Search by time is also weakly supported. Calendars are the standard for time. But people use the names of events to refer to time periods. Named time periods resemble place names in being: Unstable: European War, Great War, First World War. Multiple: Second World War, Great Patriotic War. Ambiguous: “Civil war” in different centuries in England, USA, Spain. Places have temporal aspects & periods have geographical aspects: When the Stone Age was, varies by region.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries14 Similarity between place names and period names So a similar solution: A gazetteer-like Time Period Directory. Gazetteer: Place name – Type – Spatial markers (Lat & long) -- When Time Period Directory Period name – Type – Time markers (Calendar) – Where Note the symmetry. Note the connections between Where and When. A directory of 2,000 named time periods derived from LCSH Chronological subdivisions is at ecai.org/imls2004

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries15 Web Interface - Access by country / US state / world city Named periods used in scholarly discourse.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries16 Web Interface - Access by map

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries17 Web Interface - Access by timeline Link initiates search of the Library of Congress catalog for all records relating to this time period.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries18 WHEN and WHAT. These named time periods are derived from Library of Congress catalog subject headings and so can be used for catalog searching which finds books on topics important for that time period.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries19 TextTHESAURUS MapsGAZETTEERCaptionsNumeric datasets TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY Timeline Chronology Genres and INFRASTRUCTURE

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries20 WHEN, WHERE and WHO. Catalog records found from a time period search commonly include names of persons important at that time. Their names can be forwarded to, e.g., biographies in the Wikipedia encyclopedia.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries21 Place and time are broadly important across numerous tools and genres including, e.g. Language atlases, Library catalogs, Biographical dictionaries, Bibliographies, Archival finding aids, Museum records, etc., etc. Biographical dictionaries are heavy on place and time: Emanuel Goldberg, Born Moscow PhD under Wilhelm Ostwald, Univ. of Leipzig, Director, Zeiss Ikon, Dresden, Moved to Palestine Died Tel Aviv, Life as a series of episodes involving Activity (WHAT), WHERE, WHEN, and WHO else.

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries22 BIOG. DICT. TextTHESAURUS MapsGAZETTEERCaptionsNumeric datasets TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY Timeline Chronology

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries23 BIOG. DICT. 2 BIOG. DICT. THESAURUS 3 Text 2 THESAURUS 2 TextTHESAURUS MapsGAZETTEERCaptionsNumeric GAZETTEER 2etcdatasets GAZETTEER 3 TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY Time line TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY 2 Chronology TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY 3

Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries24 Through - standards - good practice - interoperability an “intermediate infrastructure” like a traditional reference collection could be built and shared. Thank-you! ecai.org/imls2004 Work done jointly with Fredric Gey, Ray Larson, and others. Acknowledgments: Institute of Museum & Library Services, National Science Foundation, DARPA, Academia Sinica (Taiwan), Alexandria Digital Library project, and others.