University of Arizona

School of Information Resources & Library Science

IRLS 401/501 - Knowledge Structures I

Fall 2001 - Toolbox



Instructor: Anita Sundaram Coleman
GAT & WebCT Technical Support: Shelly Drumm; Email: shel@dakotacom.net
Mode of Instruction: Virtual
Office: SIRLS 21

REQUIRED TEXTS

  1. Taylor, Arlene. 1999. The Organization of Information. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
  2. Mann, Thomas. 1993. Library Research Models: A Guide to Classification, Cataloging, and Computers. New York: Oxford University Press.

REFERENCES

  1. IFLA's Digital Libraries: Metadata Resources does an excellent job of maintaining an up-to-date web page on this topic - http://ifla.inist.fr/II/metadata.htm - Week of Sept. 28 - Oct. 5, 2001
  2. Understanding MARC Bibliographic - http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/umb/ highly recommended introduction to MARC - Week of Sept. 21 - 28, 2001
  3. Milstead, J., and S. Feldman. Metadata: Cataloging by Any Other Name. http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/metadata/
  4. Getty's Introduction to Vocabularies - http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/vocabulary/introvocabs/ - the Tools links provides a list of good tools to structured vocabularies and other rules, etc. - Week of Nov. 2 - Nov. 9
  5. NSF's Digital Library Initiative - National SMET (Science, Mathematics, Engineering & Technology) Digital Library (NSDL) - Metadata Primer - http://siteforscience.nsdl.cornell.edu/metadata_info/outline.html - Week of Nov. 26 - Dec. 6
  6. ASIS Internet Thesaurus of Information Science by Jessica Milstead - http://www.asis.org/Publications/Thesaurus/isframe.htm - Week of Nov. 26 - Dec. 6

Bibliographic Utilities

Select ONE to explore and become familiar with
  1. OCLC: http://www.oclc.org/home/
    Browse/Learn how to use the OCLC MARC documentation: http://www.oclc.org/oclc/bib/toc.htm.
  2. RLG: http://www.rlg.org/rmrdi/
    Browse/learn how to use the RLIN MARC Record

Specific Cataloging Services

Depending on what you selected above, PICK the appropriate, matching service below to explore and become familiar with
  1. CatExpress & CORC: http://catexpress.oclc.org/
  2. RLIN: You MUST Download RLIN Terminal to use RLIN.
    RLIN Cataloging: http://www.rlg.org/ric/riccat.html

Standards

MARC (encoding) + AACR2r (content) are mandatory standards for your study. Select a second standard from the Specialized Metadata Standards section and based on your format or area of interest.
Important to know that while we use the term "standards" some of these are not yet national or international standards; some are being developed by user communities and are in the standards process (trying to become standards), while others are true NISO/ISO standards or are accepted as de facto standards.

Classification Tools

Select ONE to become familiar with; Familiarity with DDC is mandatory.
  1. Library of Congress Classification Scheme - URL: http://classweb.loc.gov/
    Demo site. ENDED! DO NOT USE!!
    Use Library of Congress Classification (LCCN) Outline - URL: http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html
  2. Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) - URL: http://www.oclc.org/oclc/fp/about/ddc_21_summaries.htm
  3. Universal Decimal Classification - URL: http://www.udcc.org/
  4. National Library of Medicine (NLM) Classification - URL: http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/class/

Vocabulary Control

Select a subject of your choice and PICK ONE appropriate tool to become familiar with; Familiarity with LCSH is mandatory
  1. Library of Congress Subject Headings - (general subjects) - Access on your own through your local library or through workarounds on the Authority Files described below which are via CatExpress, DRA, or LC Catalog.
  2. Sears List of Subject Headings - (children's subjects) - Access on your own through your local library or through workarounds in CatExpress (subject headings used in MARC when from Sears are coded differently - see MARC Bibliographic Subject 6xx (below) for details).
  3. Thesaurus of Graphic Materials (TGM) - Access on your own http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/ and through workarounds in CatExpress (subject headings from the TGM when used in MARC bibliographic records are coded differently - see MARC Bibliographic Subject 6xx (below) for details)
  4. Art & Architecture Thesaurus - (art & architecture subjects) - http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/
    Note: Getty's Vocabulary Control Program includes maintenance of three vocabularies: The AAT above, ULAN (Union List of Artist Names), and TGN (Thesaurus of Geographic Names).
  5. Medical Subject Headings - (medical subjects) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html - MARC Bibliographic records can also use and indicate MeSH records in 6xx; see MARC Authority Format for details.
  6. ERIC Thesaurus - (educational subjects) - http://www.ericfacility.net/extra/pub/thessearch.cfm
    Note: ERIC database is located here: http://www.askeric.org/
  7. GeoREF Thesaurus - (geography subjects) - Access through UA Sabio at http://www.library.arizona.edu/indexes/links/georef.shtml - once inside use the Thesaurus link to search for example, the term Aquifers
  8. GEONet Names Server - (foreign place names) - http://164.214.2.59/gns/html/index.html
  9. Other subjects: feel free to pick other subjects (for example, INSPEC Thesaurus for physics, astronomy subjects, Library Literature (does it have a thesaurus or just a controlled vocabulary?) for LIS, etc.
  10. ASIS Thesaurus for Information Science (fully online) - http://www.asis.org/Publications/Thesaurus/isframe.htm

Authority Control (traditional - in libraries)

  1. MARC 21 Authority Format: http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/ecadhome.html
  2. Name Authority File and Subject Authority File (SAF has the authority records for the Library of Congress Subject Headings; NAF has the names established by LC and other catalogers for personal, corporate names, uniform titles, conferences, etc.)
  3. MARC Bibliographic Subject 6xx tags indicate source from where heading (if LCSH, TGM, or other) was derived - http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/lite/elbdsubj.html ; see MARC Code Lists for terms to see a complete list of sources from where headings can come - http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/relators/re0006su.html
    Note: Three ways to search these files for this class: 1) CatExpress Authority; DRA (details below); and LC Catalog (on your own).
    DRA (a library automation system vendor) provides the LC Authority files for free searching on the web. The DRA LC Authority Search is located at http://lcmarc.dra.com/LCAUTH
  4. Library of Congress Catalog - http://catalog.loc.gov/
    Use Subject search

Ontologies, Lexical Databases

  1. What is an ontology? http://www.semanticweb.org/knowmarkup.html
  2. Stanford KSL Network Servers - http://www-ksl-svc.stanford.edu:5915/
    Register to use and read about Ontolingua ontology
  3. SHOE - Semantic Search - SHOE Search Engine
    Must have IE, allow applets, and have good network connections
  4. WordNet - http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/ - an electronic lexical database (natural language processing).

Professional Links to People, Associations, Listservs, Etc. in the Field

  1. Arlene G. Taylor's Homepage - http://www.pitt.edu/~agtaylor/index.html
  2. Music Library Association - http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/
  3. Society of American Archivists - http://www.archivists.org/
  4. American Library Assciation Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, ALA ALCTS - http://www.ala.org/alcts/; ALCTS Committees are important: http://www.ala.org/alcts/organization/index.html
  5. International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions, IFLA - http://www.ifla.org/; IFLA Acitivities & Services are important: http://www.ifla.org/act-serv.htm, specifically, UBCIM, and IFLA publications.
  6. jESSE Listserv - http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
  7. AutoCat Listserv - international discussion forum for issues related to cataloging and authority control - http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/archives/autocat.html

General Purpose References and Tools

In this section I have tried to point you to a few resources on the WWW that may be useful to build your mental map of information organization activities.
  • Cataloger's Reference Shelf - http://www.tlcdelivers.com/tlc/crs/CRS0000.htm - List of descriptive and subject cataloging manuals, principles, and tools used in Library Cataloging.
  • Uses of Metadata - Tim Berners-Lee's article in Scientific American about the Semantic Web - http://www.scientificamerican.com/2001/0501issue/0501berners-lee.html
  • Automatic Metadata Creation Tools - http://dublincore.org/tools/
  • How do users think of knowledge? What are knowledge structures? - The constuctivist view in education - http://umperg.physics.umass.edu/perspective/constructivism and an associated research study may provide a preliminary understanding - http://umperg.physics.umass.edu/perspective/cognitiveModelPaper
  • (Philosophical Digression) The Crisis of the Structures of Knowledge; How Many Ways May We Know? and Where do we go from here?


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