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LIS 205: Introduction to Information Sources & Services

Unit 2: Part 1—Bibliographic Control and Organization of Information: Implications for Reference Search Strategies

Kevin Rioux, PhD

Division of Library and Information Science

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Some definitions:

• Bibliographic universe—the totality of published items (InBEs), regardless of date, format, or location.

• Bibliographic control—the organizing of InBEs and the representations of these items (e.g., catalog or index records) so that they may be identified and located.

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Modern Context for bibliographic control, organization of information and reference work

• Traditionally, library collections were under standardized and local bibliographic control

• Today, the “bibliographic universe” is not as carefully organized as it was before the advent of electronic information sources

• Question: so why is it so important for reference librarians to know traditional control and organization concepts?

– Answers:

• Can contribute to new systems (e.g., Internet-based sources)

• Can streamline retrieval for reference

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Library Catalogs: Traditional Features and New Trends

• Traditionally, library catalogs were simply retrieval tools for the local collection.– Today, the catalog often provides access to resources in distant or partner

libraries– Also, access to both free and subscription-based indexes and citation

databases• Records are now often from:

– OCLC (Online Computer Library Center)– RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network)

• Tweaked for local catalog use– Union Catalog

• Catalog of combined holdings• Requires additional user training

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Library Catalogs: Traditional Features and New Trends, cont’d.

• Catalogs are composed of representations or surrogates of InBEs

– i.e., bibliographic records

– Traditionally cards = card catalog

– Today: machine readable bibliographic information that give content and structure to MARC records (Machine-readable Cataloging) = full or abbreviated records to be seen in OPACs

– Internet resources are not cataloged according to such schemes. Instead, they often use Dublin Core metadata schemes.

• Still take advantage over traditional control and organizational schemes while enjoying the features of e-formats

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Library Catalogs: Traditional Features and New Trends, cont’d.

• Historic access points (card catalog)

– Author cards

– Title cards

– Subject cards

• Used established subject heading lists

– LCSH

– Sears

– Shelf lists (browse by classification number)

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Library Catalogs: Traditional Features and New Trends, cont’d.

• MARC access points

– Many of the MARC fields can serve as access points:

• Author

• Title

• Subject heading (many more than traditional, and from more than one subject headings list)

• ISBN

• Publisher

• Audience code

• Etc.

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Indexes

• Index = “to point to”. It is a tool used to locate information someplace else, either in a book, a document, a set of periodicals, or a database.

– Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature– ABI Inform– Index Medicus– LISA

• Librarians MUST read the scope pages of the index to know what materials are included!

• Traditionally, indexes were arranged in alphabetical order by subject, and in some cases, by author. Often indexes titles were displayed.

• Electronic indexes provide more access points, but less “first-page” display of actual titles.

– May confuse readers: titles may not necessarily be owned by the library providing the index to the patron.

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Dublin Core

• A metadata scheme for Internet sources that provides a set of descriptives similar to MARC records

• Does not provide subject cataloging from standardized lists

– Keyword searching

– “Self” indexing

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Elements of Bibliographic Control

• Arrangement

• Collocation

• Name Authority Control

• Subject Authority Control

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Arrangement

• Refers to the physical arrangement of the catalog– Classified catalog

• Have to know the class number in order to use• Not used much in the U.S.• Useful for browsing

– Dictionary catalog• items in simple alphabetical order

– Subject catalog• Subjects arranged in alphabetical order

– Other partitions:• Author• Subject

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Collocation

• Simply, the notion that similar materials should be gathered at a single location

• Syndetic structure: the maintenance of linkages between terms

– Can be hyperlinks

– Cross-references between new and old terms

– Combined or inverted phrases: e.g., “Public Transport” and “Public Transport, buses” appear together in an alphabetical display.

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Name authority control

• Many different permutations of authors’ names due to non-standardized indexing, or publishers’ decisions

– Name authority control ensures that all existing permutations are gathered together in the catalog.

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Subject authority control

• Goal is to gather together in one place all InBEs on a particular topic using terms that represent the intellectual content of these items.

• Subject cataloging, which is the application of subject headings and the creation of subject entries, is used to accomplish this goal.

– LCSH

– Sears (smaller libraries)

– Lists of descriptors: preferred terms

– Thesauri: wider and narrower terms

• Note: bibliographic records for cataloging are standardized in many cases, but the unit records of indexes often vary.

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Search strategy

• An explicit way of approaching information retrieval rather than the less-constructed approach used by many patrons. Involves thinking critically about the search process and the available resources.

• See Box 4.4 on p. 83. Alexander’s Model of the Search Process

• Specific to general approaches

• General to specific approaches

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Unit 2: Part 2 – Almanacs, Yearbooks and Handbooks

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Why use Almanacs, Yearbooks, and Handbooks?

• SPEED! Often the fastest way to locate concise, factual, and authoritative information about current events, organizations, people, places, trends, etc.

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About almanacs

• Historically about general agricultural and household information: e.g., Old Farmer’s Almanac, Poor Richard’s Almanack

• Later, newspapers compiled almanacs• Many almanacs are global in scope, but some focus on a particular

region or industry or geographical area • Topics:

– Sports– Zip codes– Business and organization addresses– Historical facts– Population statistics– Health issues

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Almanacs, cont’d.

• Some good almanac choices:

– World Almanac and Book of Facts

– New York Times Almanac

– Information Please Almanac (Time Almanac)

• Almanacs can be found online if your library subscribes to a service that indexes them.

• Each is somewhat different in content and presentation, so it may be useful to have more than one handy.

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Yearbooks

• Typically related to encyclopedias, e.g., Brittanica Yearbook, Europa Yearbook, Statesman’s Yearbook

• Focus on the events and statistics for a given year (often the year before)

– Deaths of prominent persons

– Disasters

– Social problems

– Cultural trends

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Handbooks

• Large amounts of information about a given subject compressed into a single volume

• Examples:– Whole Library Handbook– Guinness Book of World Records– Oxford Companion to Religion (English, Jazz, Literature, etc.)– Physicians Desk Reference– Chicago Manual of Style– Chilton’s 1999 Subaru Legacy– Emily Post’s Etiquette– Mayo Clinic Family Health Book– Folklore of World Holidays

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Evaluation variables

• Accuracy

• Indexing

• Documentation

• Comprehensiveness

• Uniqueness

• Format

• Currency