Subject Access in Online Catalogs: A Design Model

Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Pubblicato in:Journal of the American Society for Information Science (1986-1998) vol. 37, no. 6 (Nov 1986), p. 357-376
Autore principale: Bates, Marcia J
Pubblicazione:
Wiley Periodicals Inc.
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Descrizione
Abstract:A model based on strikingly different philosophical as sumptions from those currently popular is proposed for the design of online subject catalog access. Three de sign principles are presented and discussed: uncer tainty (subject indexing is indeterminate and probabilis tic beyond a certain point), variety (by Ashby's law of requisite variety, variety of searcher query must equal variety of document indexing), and complexity (the search process, particularly during the entry and orien- tation phases, is subtler and more complex, on several grounds, than current models assume). Design features presented are an access phase, including entry and ori- entation, a hunting phase, and a selectfon phase. An end-user thesaurus and a front-end system mind are presented as examples of online catalog system com- ponents to improve searcher success during entry and orientation. The proposed model is "wrapped around" existing Library of Congress subject-heading indexing in such a way as to enhance access greatly without requiring reindexing. It is argued that both for cost reasons and in principle this is a superior approach to other design phi- losophies.
ISSN:0002-8231
1097-4571
Fonte:ABI/INFORM Global