Page 70 - DLIS405_INFORMATION_STORAGE_AND_RETRIEVAL

Unit 7: Sorting and Indexing

Indexing is not a new activity: it has been practiced since libraries came into existence. Modern Notes
information services are in essence the same as traditional libraries. Specific problems and emphases
may change, but the fundamental principles of indexing remain the same.

7.1 Sorting

In a title catalogue, one can distinguish two sort orders:
In the grammatical sort order (used mainly in older catalogues), the most important word of the
title is the first sort term. The importance of a word is measured by grammatical rules; for example,
the first noun may be defined to be the most important word.
In the mechanical sort order, the first word of the title is the first sort term. Most new catalogues use
this scheme, but still include a trace of the grammatical sort order: they neglect an article (The, A,
etc.) at the beginning of the title.
The grammatical sort order has the advantage that often, the most important word of the title is also
a good keyword (question 3), and it is the word most users remember first when their memory is
incomplete. However, it has the disadvantage that many elaborate grammatical rules are needed,
so that only expert users may be able to search the catalogue without help from a librarian.
In some catalogues, person’s names are standardized, i.e., the name of the person is always
(catalogueed and) sorted in a standard form, even if it appears differently in the library material.
This standardization is achieved by a process called authority control. An advantage of the authority
control is that it is easier to answer question 2 (which works of some author does the library have?).
On the other hand, it may be more difficult to answer question 1 (does the library have some specific
material?) if the material spells the author in a peculiar variant. For the cataloguer, it may incur
(too) much work to check whether Smith, J. is Smith, John or Smith, Jack.
For some works, even the title can be standardized. The technical term for this is uniform title. For
example, translations and re-editions are sometimes sorted under their original title. In many
catalogues, parts of the Bible are sorted under the standard name of the book(s) they contain.

The plays of William Shakespeare are another frequently cited example of the
role played by a uniform title in the library catalogue.

Many complications about alphabetic sorting of entries arise. Some examples:
Some languages know sorting conventions that differ from the language of the catalogue. For
example, some Dutch catalogues sort IJ as Y. Should an English catalogue follow this suit? And
should a Dutch catalogue sort non-Dutch words the same way?

7.2 Online Catalogues

Online cataloguing has greatly enhanced the usability of catalogues, thanks to the rise of MAchine
Readable Cataloguing = MARC standards in the 1960s. Rules governing the creation of catalogue
MARC records include not only formal cataloguing rules like AACR2 but also special rules specific
to MARC, available from the Library of Congress and also OCLC. MARC was originally used to
automate the creation of physical catalogue cards; Now the MARC computer files are accessed directly
in the search process. OPACs have enhanced usability over traditional card formats because:
The online catalogue does not need to be sorted statically; the user can choose author, title, keyword,
or systematic order dynamically.

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