Page 219 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Information Analysis and Repackaging

Notes • Forms of: Bibliometric Knowledge Organization
• Approaches based on Exemplary documents
Conclusion
Automatic indexing may–at first–look like a reasonable limited and well-defined research topic.
Important developments have taken place, the practical implication which most of us use almost
every day. However, there seems to be no limits to how automatic indexing may be improved and
how the theoretical outlook opens-up. Nearly every aspect of human language may be involved in
the improvement machine processing of language (and each natural language may need special
consideration).
Language is again connected to human action and to cultural and social issues, and a given natural
language is not just one well-defined thing, why forms of sublanguages also have to be considered.
Research in automatic indexing is no longer primarily a question of better computers, but primarily
a question of better understanding of human language and the social actions that this language is
serving.
Assigned indexing which is not just a not simple substitutions of document terms with synonyms,
but which represents independent conceptualizations of document contents may turn out to be the
most important area in which human indexing performs better than automatic indexing (for example
assigning “romantic poem” to a poem, which does not describe itself as such).

Indexing Language
Suitability for our Apple Environment
Our thesaurus will meet the needs of our indexers by providing them with a searchable database of
apple characteristics that they will use to describe the characteristics of apple varieties and identify
various uses for apples. This list of apple varieties will then be used by the general public to identify
the right type of apple for their needs and desires. Keeping these end-users in mind, we have aimed
to consistently select the most common and simple word or phrase as our preferred term when
several options were available.
Creating records for this database will require the services of people thoroughly familiar with
different varieties of apples. This is necessary in order for the indexers to be able to describe the
apples in such a way that distinguishes between varieties in a meaningful way. Each apple variety
will be tasted and described by a panel of apple judges to attempt to achieve consensus on the
properties of the apples being described.

Type of Indexing Language
Our thesaurus is a controlled language thesaurus and is based on the ANSI/NISO Z39.19.1993
Standard Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri.
Indexers will be able to select from a list of terms when they are describing the apple varieties. They
will also have access to a list of pre-approved modifiers such as “very” and “light.”
Pre-coordinate Headings and Post-coordinate Retrieval

Our thesaurus will be made searchable through an online database. Therefore, it uses precoordinate
headings designed for post-coordinate retrieval. The advantage of this is that it limits the number
of terms in our thesaurus. For example, when including terms for various apple colours, we used
only basic colours such as red and yellow, even though some apples could be described as having a
reddish-yellow colour.

Forms of Terms
Our thesaurus includes both single-word and multi-word terms whose grammatical forms follow
the standards outlined in sections 3.4 and 3.5. We used pluralization as needed. As most words in

214 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY