LIS 204:Introduction to Library and Information Science

Week Nine

Kevin Rioux, PhD

Information Organization

• Ways of looking at information organization– How knowledge is organized by society– How knowledge is organized in a library or database

• In LIS the primary motivation for organizing information ==> RETRIEVAL (facilitates/improves ACCESS)– Our professional mandate states that we need to create and

maintain systems to organize material – Also a stewardship function

• Taking care of materials• Preservation of materials

Major challenges

• Very quickly, large amounts of materials (aka, “knowledge”, “information”, “data”) are constantly being added to vast amounts of extant knowledge.– How to organize all of this appropriately and in ways that will

benefit the user?• Not only physical items, but e-materials

– E-materials are subject to deterioration – E-materials are extremely numerous– E-materials are often ephemeral

• Organization of representational records– Cards, OPAC records, etc.

Goal of organization schemes

• Reflect (as much as possible) the way people normally seek out information (none are perfect)

• Be easy to implement by staff and users• Be flexible enough to accommodate all extant and new knowledge.

• THIS IS A TALL ORDER

Intuitive categorization schemes

• Size• Color• Format• Language

• Age• Genre• Audience• Medium

• NOT GOOD ENOUGH for accurate retrieval!

Intellectual tools that aide in organization of materials (often depend on each other)

• Classification systems• Controlled vocabularies, thesauri and subject headings• Library catalog and rules (AACR2)• Indexes, abstracts, and bibliographies• E-databases

Classification

• The act of organizing all knowledge into some kind of systematic order. – allows for description of items as well as suggests relationships

between items– suggests physical arrangement in a library– Suggests a “mental” order for users

• Based on:– Subject--what the item is about– Discipline--a related body of knowledge that defines a particular

approach to looking at phenomena

DCC (Dewey Decimal Classification)

• Most common in the U.S. and most widely used in the world• First proposed by Melvil Dewey in 1876• Divides knowledge into 10 major “classes”

Main Dewey Classes

• 000--Generalities• 100-- Philosophy, parapsychology,

occultism, psychology• 200--Religion• 300--Social Science• 400--Language• 500--Natural Sciences and

Mathematics

• 600--Technology and the applied sciences

• 700--The arts• 800--Literature and rhetoric• 900--Geography, history

DDC classes, cont’d.

• In each class, there are subclasses and sub-subclasses, and sub-sub-subclasses that indicate greater specificity. – The notation digits can get fairly long– Remember you are working with *decimals*, which indicate a

*fraction*. Thus 795.5 is larger than 795.395, and should be shelved (and shifted) in its relative location accordingly.

DDC drawbacks

• A closed system--range of numbers is limited to 000 to 999.– As new disciplines emerge, they must be accommodated into the

existing ten classes--problematic for things not imagined in Dewey’s time

– Biased toward Western cultures--doesn’t easily accommodate non-Western ideas

LOC (Library of Congress Classification)

• An alphanumeric system– 20 main classes indicated by letters– Each notation has 1-3 letters, followed by 1-4 integers – Classes can be expanded by decimals

• Developed by the LOC to deal with its very large collection in the early 20th Century

• About 75% of academic libraries use LOC

Controlled Vocabulary

• A list of preferred descriptive terms, and rules for assigning these terms.– Provide consistency for descriptions as well as author and title

terms– Give guidance when items are very close in nature– Provide a system of relationships between items– Reduce error and ambiguity– Suggest broader and narrower terms and give the proper

equivalent term

Thesauri

• Works in tandem with controlled vocabulary scheme– Thesauri are developed in natural language (e.g., in terms that

people are likely to use in everyday speech)– These thesauri provide links between natural language and

controlled vocabulary• Allows authors, catalogers, etc., to position their item within controlled

vocabulary• Allows for researchers to select the “correct” controlled vocabulary term

to retrieve materials• Helps ensure consistency in the cataloging and retrieval processes

• Thesauri terms are often called “descriptors”• Are critical to electronic retrieval systems

LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings)

• An accepted authority of subject headings for library catalogs and indexes.

• Acts as a kind of index to the classification scheme, giving classification numbers assigned to any given topic.– E.g. “Germany” is included in many different LOC record

notations. By looking at the LCSH, you can see all the headings where “Germany” exists, thus aiding retrieval.

• LCSH are used to develop MARC records, which in turn increase standardization across collections, thus aiding retrieval.

Other subject heading schemes:

• Sears List of Subject Headings– Simpler than LCSH– Used by smaller libraries

• MeSH– Extremely specific and somewhat complex– Created by the National Library of Medicine (NLM– Used for the Index Medicus

Subject heading issues

• Reflect a cultural bias?• May not reflect the way people think about subjects (e.g., overly

academic), thus is a hindrance to retrieval and use• Some subject headings are quickly outdated

Library catalogs

• Describe all the holdings of the facility, and facilitate retrieval.• Each item in the collection has a *record*, either a card or an electronic

record.• These records are created using Anglo-American Cataloging Rules,

2nd Edition (AACR2) created in 1974.• Electronic records are most often in MARC format (Machine Readable

Cataloging), which provides fields for specific pieces of data about the item.