Page 239 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Information Analysis and Repackaging

Notes Word boundary discrimination

Importance detection
Learning ability: particularly, adding to the knowledge base as the book is indexed
Arranging ability: creating a structure, including first and second level entries, that reflects the text
and is easy to use
The knowledge base requirements are:
An object model capable of holding the knowledge
A populated (by words & other data) general linguistic structure that relates words to one another,
and to sensory knowledge (the world).
Specific knowledge of the actual subject of the book, including maps of the intellectual terrain
Picture of the knowledge bases of types of likely users.

Conclusion

The overall reason that computers, or machine indexers, cannot produce high-quality book indexes
is that no system has yet been devised that allows computers to possess and effectively use knowledge
bases that are similar in content and arrangement to human knowledge bases.
The ability of humans to learn about the world and how to use natural languages to represent that
world is intimately tied to the human ability to index books. The book indexing process often includes
learning about the world and extending the indexer’s knowledge of language. It is possible that at
some point in the future a machine indexer with human abilities could be constructed, and a
requirements list was generated for this task.

Authority and Vocabulary Control in Image Collections

Due to the introduction and implementation of online image catalogues and databases containing
entire image collections there is a need for some sort of universal language for cataloging image
collections. It is now possible to access online various image collections, but some sort of universal
language is needed to catalog certain aspects of images, to make possible to search for specific
images. Yet, there are many problems related to creating universal cataloging standards for visual
collections, he we will only deal with the vocabulary and authority control needed to describe art,
architecture, and museum images.

Authority and Vocabulary Control
It is very difficult to imagine that a universal descriptive language can be created and used
proficiently. Image collections have not developed a universal standard for organization because
most collections have extremely diverse information needs. For example, art historians tend to use
iconographic descriptors when cataloging images, while museum curators use straightforward
information taken directly from the physical aspects of an art work.
If an image collection is serving a small group of scholars, vocabulary to describe an image can
usually be chosen fairly easily, because the cataloguer understands the needs of the patron. However,
if the audience becomes the entire on-line world, can a single, universal, descriptive tool be used to
satisfy all of the users?
Art historians argue that it is not possible to restrict the language used to catalogue an image. One
image can contain an inexhaustible range of meanings, and it can take more than one thousand
words to describe it. There is not an adequate list of terms available today to describe all of the
aspects of images contained in image collections. In fact, few reliable descriptors exist for images:
“It is that pictures need words. Words for artists. Words for style. Words for dates. Words for subjects.
Words for things. In other words, many, many words.”

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