The Disappearance of Controlled Vocabulary in Bibliographic Instruction

In Memoriam?

Stephanie WiegandReference Librarian & Associate Professor

University of Northern Colorado

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NURSINGThe field of nursing care concerned with the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health.

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Controlled Vocabulary

Subject TermsSubject HeadingsMeSH

two purposessearching with

NURSINGThe field of nursing care concerned with the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health.

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SIDSsudden infant deathsudden infant death syndromesudden baby deathcot deathcrib death

ACRL says yes.Library research handbooks say yes.What say you?

Are you still teaching controlled vocabulary?

Herein lay the story of a left turn…

ANDSymbol:IntersectionConjunction

U

ORSymbol: UUnionDisjunction

NOTSymbol: -Negation

“However, using SmartText Searching, results were found based on your keywords.”

ACRL says yes.Library research handbooks say yes.What say you?

Are you still teaching Boolean?

Anyone?

Anyone?

the research5 academic libraries

116 librarians14 questions

41 responses (35%)

56%

23%

8% 8%5%

2000-2010 1990-1999 1980-1989 1970-1979 Unknown

Year Graduated with ALA-Accredited Master's Degree or Advanced Subject-

Specific Degree

Years Employed in Professional Positions in Academic Libraries

1-10 years

11-20 years

21-30 years

30+ years

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Frequency of Boolean logic & operators taught in library research credit-bearing courses

Concept AND OR NOT

Never 20% 0% 40% 40%Infrequently 20% 20% 0% 0%

Sometimes 0% 0% 0% 0%

Frequently 20% 0% 0% 20%

Always 40% 80% 60% 40%

Frequency of Boolean logic & operators taught in one-shot library sessions (not including tours)

Concept AND OR NOT

Never 17% 11% 14% 20%Infrequently 11% 6% 11% 37%

Sometimes 20% 20% 20% 17%

Frequently 31% 31% 37% 14%

Always 20% 31% 17% 11%

Concept AND OR NOT0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Never/Infrequently/Sometimes

Frequently/Always

Comparison of the Frequency Boolean Logic & Operators Are Taught in One-Shot Library

Sessions (Not Including Tours)

In what circumstances should librarians teach Boolean operators and why?

(e.g., always, just in credit-bearing courses, just to graduate students, in specific disciplines, with specific

databases, et cetera)

Graduate Students

+/-

Graduate StudentsSpecific Databases

Graduate StudentsSpecific DatabasesInsufficient Time

Graduate StudentsSpecific DatabasesInsufficient TimeKeyword Searching

Graduate StudentsSpecific DatabasesInsufficient TimeKeyword SearchingSpecific Search

Please share your thoughts on database vendors

automatically inserting Boolean operators into search

strings,

instead of requiring the end-user to insert appropriate

Boolean operators.

Positive44%

Negative21%

Neither Positive nor Neg-

ative35%

Feelings about database vendors automatically inserting Boolean operators into search strings.

ACRL says yes.Library research handbooks say yes.Librarians surveyed say sometimes.What say you?

Should we still be teaching Boolean?

Stephanie Wiegandstephanie.wiegand@unco

.edu

References for Images Slide 2: Image from

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