Helena Mc Keever ID. 3112874 Information Sources and Services 72.270Assignment 2 Words (1800) excludes snip tool and reference list.

I dont plan to take you through the complete methods of searching the catalogue today. There are many search strategies and an unending resource of articles, books and electronic resources to view in library catalogues that many long, jammed-packed years have created with no moment of slowing down. A student with a healthy interest in multiple subject areas and formats will rise to the challenge of subject access in the library.

It is useful to be aware of the variety of catalogues available in the various university, public, school and special libraries and to browse the help sections of these catalogues. Many newer catalogues now allow integrated searching of the physical library resources or collections on the library catalogue and many of the libraries databases. An example of this in Hawkes Bay is the new Kotui catalogue soon to come to the Hastings Public Libraries. This computer systems allow users to search physical and electronic resources from one portal.

For those of you who come freshly to subject searching this presentation looks at what controlled vocabulary and natural language are and how they are used for subject searching. These are likely to be new concepts for first year university or polytechnic students to hear.

What is Controlled Vocabulary?

The Open Polytechnic (2012) notes that controlled vocabulary are words taken from a predefined list of subject terms and added to the catalogue or index record by the cataloguer or indexer to create virtual groupings of information. Many serial articles have controlled vocabulary chosen by the author of the article, or by the publisher of the journal. In libraries, the term subject heading is the subject term most frequently used in controlled vocabularies (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2 p. 3).

Nga Upoko Tuktuku http://mshupolo.natlibr.govt.nz/mshupolo/index.htm is a controlled vocabulary that has been developed in New Zealand for New Zealand libraries. It describes information that is written in Te Reo Maori, and/or is about Maori and this scope was broadened to include all information in all catalogues in 2009 (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2 p. 19).

Most libraries in New Zealand use the general controlled vocabulary Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These headings are still the largest general list of subject headings in English (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2 p. 22). It tries to cover all subject areas. More than one subject heading can be provided for any given work, and subject searchers can find information on related subjects by using cross references to related, broader or narrower terms. It involves considering all possible words that might be used for a subject, choosing one word or phrase to represent the subject and then considering the relationships that subject has with others.

When searching for a book using subject headings you will search the controlled vocabulary to see the related search terms when you open the catalogue record. By clicking on those related terms you will then be able to bring up an index and see the books or other items related to that search term.

You can also do a keyword search first. This search uses natural language. You can look at the results and choose the most relevant items and then look at what subject headings are on that record as well as related subject headings in the catalogue record and then link into the controlled vocabulary from the Library of Congress subject headings or the Maori Subject headings. .

The Open Polytechnic (2012) notes that users are often unaware that the subject headings used in the catalogue are from an established list. As a general observation many users do not work with the same catalogue enough to become aware of its more sophisticated features such as library subject headings. They guess at keywords.

What is Natural Language?

There are two types of words that can be used to provide subject access: natural language and controlled vocabulary.

Natural Language are the words (often called keywords) that appear inthe text of the actual item (book, article and so on), including title, author name,Publisher and contents, or words in common everyday use that indicate what theitem is about and form a summary or abstract of the item. These may be added tothe catalogue or index record, or (increasingly) will be drawn from the full text ofthe item itself. (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2 p. 3). You access these word in the catalogue when you do a keyword or quick search.

The World Wide Web has made natural language the default way of searching for most people and for non librarians. People with a computer have certain expectations about how to search and get large results lists from search engines using natural language. Users often carry these expectations to library catalogues. (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2, p.1)

Advantages and Disadvantages

Three methods of subject searching: title keyword, subject heading searches and keyword searching across the whole record have advantages and disadvantages when it comes to using natural language and controlled vocabulary.

Controlled vocabulary has hierarchical relationships and cross references. This allows you to choose the best subject heading for your topic. A disadvantage of Natural language it that it doesn't. One advantage if natural language is that it is a relatively low-cost method, as most of the information is simply copied from the original item. The intellectual input at the beginning stage is minimal. This is cheaper than having someone work out what an item is about and select suitable subject terms from a controlled vocabulary to add to a record. Natural language may also reflect more closely the terms used by the researcher. It is assigned by the computer rather than the indexer.

Natural language indexing is particularly appropriate when searches involve specific words known to be used in the source material for example proper nouns such as brand names and company names.

Natural language can be very accurate, especially for very current and/or specialised topics that may have their own unique terminology. The terminology is also familiar to users. The Open Polytechnic (2012) notes that library catalogue users are familiar with this approach because it is what they do with search engines. (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2, p.1). To illustrate this with an example from a real library catalogue we can search Kotui for a keyword. The below screen capture uses snip tool to show the 431 results that the Kotui catalogue displays for the keyword search Waitangi, which is a specialised topic at Hastings Public Libraries. Hit search and these are the results displayed. By clicking on the blue Only Show Available tab you can see a list of search results that are available in a particular library.

You can click on any of these titles these are hyperlinks. You can also limit and search to include or exclude items based on publication year or format (such as DVD or reference material published in 2012, for example) You can save your library search and email search to yourself by selecting the select an action tab. When you look in your email inbox you will see a list of search results.

When using Kotui there is not a plain keyword search as there is in a catalogue such as Spydus. Searching the term all fields is the same thing as a plain keyword search of all fields. You can see this with the related keyword phrase search for the treaty of Waitangi as shown. There are 177 hits.

We can contrast this with a title search, The Treaty of Waitangi and see these 135 results

There are generally fewer results in a title search compared with a keyword search. Both use natural language to search but the keyword or everything search searches across more fields than does the title search which specifically used natural language to search the title field. In Kotui there is a simple search title. There is not a keyword in title search although there is a keyword in author search and a keyword in subject search.

A subject browse or subject everything search of The treaty of Waitangi and Waitangi brings the following results on the Kotui Catalogue.

We can zoom in to see the subject heading listed on the left of this catalogue. The subject headings link into the Library of Congress Subject Headings or Maori Subject Headings, for example the Maori subject heading Tiriti o Waitangi is shown in the subject terms list when we click through on the blue hyperlink to look at the title Healing our History as now shown.

One advantage of using terms from a controlled vocabulary is that controlled vocabulary can help compensate for the problems found when relying solely on natural language terms. All items on the same topic will have the same subject headings. Related subject heading are also visible and lead to other relevant items for the user. Another advantage is that it doesnt matter what words have been used in titles or abstracts, nor does it matter how they are spelled or combined, as the controlled vocabulary will provide a standard approach. For example, an art book that was published with a keyword in the title purposely spelt incorrectly will still be found using the same subject headings. (1641)

One limitation of controlled vocabulary is that users must know the correct term or terms for their subject, and it is not always easy to determine the most appropriate one(s). This can be overcome by first searching for the subject you are interested in, using a keyword search, and then identifying the relevant subject headings from items in the results lists. We can then search using those subject headings or related subject headings or a cross reference to a subject heading.

Another limitation of controlled vocabularies used in New Zealand is that they were not written here. For example, the Library of Congress Subject Headings, which is used in many New Zealand library catalogues, is American. This means that users will not always find New Zealand terminology or spelling for the subjects they are seeking. For example, in the Library of Congress Subject Headings, the term for whatNew Zealanders call railways is railroads. However, a cataloguer may use cross-references from one term to another will help overcome this. (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2, pp.3-4).

With the introduction of the internet and automated cataloguing natural language has become the default method of searching of many of todays students. However learning to use the subject headings in the library catalogue so that your searches make use of the indexes is important for your research skills. It is necessary to use the subject headings or to general keyword and then subject browse to get the benefit of the library defined Library of Congress subject headings and the Maori subject headings.

Reference List

Hastings District Libraries Kotui Catalogue. Retrieved May 18 2013 from http://ent.kotui.org.nz/client/hastings

National Library Maori Subject Heading. Retrieved May 10 2013 from http://mshupolo.natlibr.govt.nz/mshupolo/index.htm

Rowley, J. (1992). Alphabetical indexing languages. In Organizing knowledge: An introduction to information retrieval (2nd ed., pp.267, 272-276). Aldershot, England: Ashgate.

Rowley, J., & Farrow, J. (2000). Indexing and searching languages. In Organising knowledge: An introduction to managing access to information (3rd ed., pp. 123-133). Aldershot, England: Gower.

So, if you are doing an in-text reference to something in Module 3, the full reference would be:The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. (2012c). Module 3: Looking after the archives. In 72274 Archives management. Lower Hutt, New Zealand: Author.While the in-text reference would be:(The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, 2012c, Maori and archives, para. 5.) (Or whatever!!) Because there is no page number, the section title and paragraph replaces the page number. I hope this helps.It's not a published document, and therefore not available to anyone else. Giving a location on the network drive is not helpful; it won't enable anyone else to get to it, and it's not a unique location.

Have a look at these:http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/25/ (search for 'unpublished' on this page)http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/APA14.html

I'd call it an unpublished guide or unpublished template.Note that even though not published, it's correct to have a default publisher. But you cite that publisher as you do with OP course materials (hint).