Page 242 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Unit 11: Indexing Language: Types and Characteristics

the scope of what a customer can do in the course of any interaction. This is efficient, convenient, Notes
and cost-effective.
The power implications are subtle but significant, in that the more people come to depend on the
use of ISBL-based modes of interaction, either through economic incentives or the lure of convenience;
the more accustomed they become to reduce possibilities for questioning and negotiating with
organisations. What happens, in effect, is that the difficulties of dealing with exceptional or unusual
issues become greater when the customer has to step outside the normal mode of interaction, use a
different language of interaction, and rely on finding an organisational representative able to
understand the problem.
Given the focus on efficiency that an ISBL installation represents, one of the side effects is that the
organisation itself also has a reduced capacity to talk about and understand exceptional
circumstances. It seems likely that this type of issue will become increasingly problematic in relation
to government agencies, where special cases can in any circumstances be difficult to resolve given
the opacity of many rules and regulations (Herzfeld, 1992).
A typical example is where a person seeking some form of social support is unable to satisfy an
autonomous system that she or he has the attributes required of one of the organisation’s clients,
and is therefore implicitly defined as an ‘outsider’. The challenge, often a discouraging one in practice,
is for the person concerned to find another avenue into the organisation through which to change
its perception of the situation.
A prediction such as this is not based on any assumption of cynical intent on the part of organisations.
What the ISBL perspective suggests, however, is that the very convenience and efficiency of
interactions based on a simplified language used in a fully controlled environment creates new
possibilities for the exertion of ‘bottom-line’ pressures by organisational stakeholders (Laverty, 1996).
The mere existence of a streamlined mode of operation is a threat to customers or clients who need
a larger vocabulary than the one available with which to state or negotiate their requirements. It is
also conceivable that some loss of in-depth organisational knowledge will occur. Once the
‘understanding’ of an interaction is totally devolved to an autonomous IS, the temptation is to
adopt the system’s interpretation of what can and cannot be done as defining the limits of possibility
(Herzfeld, 1992).
Why Vocabulary Control
Vocabulary control is used to improve the effectiveness of information storage and retrieval systems,
Web navigation systems, and other environments that seek to both identify and locate desired content
via some sort of description using language. The primary purpose of vocabulary control is to achieve
consistency in the description of content objects and to facilitate retrieval.

1.1 Need for Vocabulary Control (1.1)
The need for vocabulary control arises from two basic features of natural language, namely:
• Two or more words or terms can be used to represent a single concept
Example:
salinity/saltiness
VHF/Very High Frequency
• Two or more words that have the same spelling can represent different concepts
Example:
Mercury (planet)
Mercury (metal)
Mercury (automobile)
Mercury (mythical being)

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