bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Q‐ANALYSIS: A METHODOLOGY FOR LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
Authors: DAVIES ROY
Published: January 2008

Q‐analysis is a methodology for investigating a wide range of structural phenomena. Structures are defined in terms of relations between members of sets and their salient features are revealed using techniques of algebraic topology. However, the basic method can be mastered by non‐mathematicians. Q‐analysis has been applied to problems as diverse as discovering the rules for the diagnosis of a rare disease and the study of tactics in a football match. Other applications include some of interest to librarians and information scientists. In bibliometrics, Q‐analysis has proved capable of emulating techniques such as bibliographic coupling, co‐citation analysis and co‐word analysis. It has also been used to produce a classification scheme for television programmes based on different principles from most bibliographic classifications. This paper introduces the basic ideas of Q‐analysis. Applications relevant to librarianship and information science are reviewed and present limitations of the approach described. New theoretical advances including some in other fields such as planning and design theory and artificial intelligence may lead to a still more powerful method of investigating structure.
WRITING ABSTRACTS FOR FREE‐TEXT SEARCHING
Authors: FIDEL RAYA
Published: January 2008

A survey of abstracting policies used by producers of bibliographic databases examined abstracting guidelines which aim to enhance free‐text retrieval. Of the 123 database policies examined, fifty‐seven (46 per cent) included such instructions. Editors consider content of abstracts and their language as a primary factor in retrieval enhancement. Most recommend that once abstractors decide which concepts to include in abstracts and in which form to represent them, these terms should be co‐ordinated with index terms assigned from a controlled vocabulary. Guidelines about the type of abstracts, i.e., informative or indicative, and about their length are not affected by the capability of free‐text retrieval.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC CLASSIFICATION THEORY AND TEXT LINGUISTICS: ABOUTNESS ANALYSIS, INTERTEXTUALITY AND THE COGNITIVE ACT OF CLASSIFYING DOCUMENTS
Authors: BEGHTOL CLARE
Published: January 2008

A strong definition of aboutness and a theory of its role in information retrieval systems have not been developed. Such a definition and theory may be extracted from the work of T. A. van Dijk. This paper discusses some of the implications of van Dijk's work for bibliographic classification theory. Two kinds of intertextuality are identified: that between documents classified in the same class of the same classification system; and that between the classification system as a text in its own right and the documents that are classified by it. Consideration of the two kinds of intertextuality leads to an investigation of the linguistic/cognitive processes that have been called the ‘translation’ of a document topic into a classificatory language. A descriptive model of the cognitive process of classifying documents is presented. The general design of an empirical study to test this model is suggested, and some problems of implementing such a study are briefly identified. It is concluded that further investigation of the relationships between text linguistics and classification theory and practice might reveal other fruitful intersections between the two fields.
KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION: A BRIEF REVIEW
Authors: VICKERY B.C.
Published: January 2008

The problems of representing knowledge in computer systems are common to information science, artificial intelligence, psychology and linguistics. The paper offers a brief review of the structures and techniques that have been developed in these different disciplines. It looks at the semantic structure of sentences, at roles, categories and relations in subject anlaysis, at semantic primitives, and at knowledge representation for reasoning. The paper concludes with a note on a prototype expert system that makes use of some of these techniques.
A CLASSIFICATION AS A SOURCE FOR A THESAURUS: THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC CLASSIFICATION OF H. E. BLISS AS A SOURCE OF THESAURUS TERMS AND STRUCTURE
Authors: AITCHISON JEAN
Published: January 2008

The second edition of the Bibliographic Classification of H. E. Bliss (BC2), being prepared under the editorship of Jack Mills, Vanda Broughton and others, is a rich source of structure and terminology for thesauri covering different subject fields. The new edition employs facet analysis and is thesaurus‐compatible. A number of facet‐based thesauri have drawn upon Bliss for terms and relationships. In two of these thesauri the Bliss Classification was the source of both systematic and alphabetical displays. The DHSS‐DATA thesaurus, published by the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Security, provides controlled terms and Bliss class numbers for indexing and searching the DHSS‐DATA database. The ECOT thesaurus (Educational courses and occupations thesaurus) prepared for the Department of Education and Science, uses the software designed for the British Standards Institution ROOT thesaurus to generate an alphabetical display from the systematic display derived from the Bliss schedules. Problems, benefits, and future prospects of Bliss‐based thesaurus construction are discussed.
ON RELEVANCE WEIGHT ESTIMATION AND QUERY EXPANSION
Authors: ROBERTSON S.E.
Published: January 2008

A Bayesian argument is used to suggest modifications to the Robertson/Sparck Jones relevance weighting formula, to accommodate the addition to the query of terms taken from the relevant documents identified during the search.
INDEXES TO THE TIMES
Authors: MORRISON DOREEN
Published: January 2008

The indexes to The Times of London are unique in providing access to an unbroken record of events as recorded by one of the world's most prestigious newspapers over a period of two hundred years. They are, therefore, an important tool for the researcher, yet there has been little comment on their quality. This study provides an introductory comparative analysis of the two main indexes: Palmer's Index to the Times Newspaper and The Times Index. The two are evaluated according to selected criteria of good indexing such as consistency, concept versus keyword approach, and the use of subject headings and cross references. Samples from both the newspaper and the indexes have been taken over fifty‐year intervals to determine whether there have been any changes in indexing techniques over time. The findings reveal the superior qualities of The Times Index and outline the problems that the researcher may encounter in using Palmer's.
MISS EDITH DITMAS: AN APPRECIATION
Authors: KIMBER RICHARD
Published: January 2008

Edith Margaret Robertson Ditmas — ‘E.D.’ to her staff and many colleagues, ‘Edith’ to her family and friends — was appointed General Secretary of Aslib in May 1933 in succession to Mr S. S. Bullock, and was redesignated Director in 1946. She retired from that post on 28 February 1950, being succeeded by Leslie Wilson. In June 1947 she took over the editorship of the Journal of Documentation with effect from the beginning of volume three, following the appointment of the founder editor, Theodore Besterman, as Counsellor, Bibliographical and Library Centre, Unesco. She continued this work until 1962. A note by Geoffrey Woledge in the June 1962 issue of the Journal informed readers that Miss Ditmas was being succeeded as Managing Editor by Miss Barbara Kyle ‘who has contributed to the Journal in the past and is now taking up a full‐time post on the Aslib staff’. It reminded readers that Aslib's establishment of the Editorial Board in 1947 had only been intended as a temporary measure (its membership in 1947 comprised F. C. Francis, D.J. Urquhart and G. Woledge) and with reference to Miss Ditmas continued:
EFFECTS OF A RELEGATION PROGRAMME ON BORROWING OF BOOKS
Authors: DOUGLAS IAN
Published: January 2008

Use of the monograph collection at Swinburne Library is reported for a six year period during which a relegation programme has been in operation. The programme has involved relocating books to stack and discarding. Loan history was the major criterion for relegation. Although 56,000 volumes have been removed from the open access collection of constant size (113,000 volumes) over the period, the number of loans from the open access collection has remained reasonably constant. There are no signs of unduly high demand for titles in the residual open access collection. There are about six calls per year for each 100 titles removed to stack. The same loan history criteria were applied to all parts of the collection in selecting titles for relocation to stack and there are few signs that inconvenience to library users has been greater in some subject areas than others. An attempt is made to estimate the effect of the stack location in itself on inhibiting borrowing. By good fortune titles have been recruited to the category of titles meeting the relegation criteria at a regular rate. The dynamics of this situation are not understood because it has not been possible to demonstrate a regular decline in borrowing with age for books in the Swinburne Library.
A REFERENCE AND REFERRAL SYSTEM USING EXPERT SYSTEM TECHNIQUES
Authors: VICKERY ALINA , BROOKS HELEN , ROBINSON BRUCE , VICKERY BRIAN
Published: January 2008

The issues involved in the construction of an expert system for retrieval are described, together with some of the techniques that have been used in artificial intelligence and information science to tackle them. The solutions adopted by the prototype expert system PLEXUS are described, with particular reference to the semantic processing that takes place. The paper concludes with a discussion of continuing issues on which work is currently proceeding.
A THIRD NOTE ON AGEING IN A LIBRARY CIRCULATION MODEL: APPLICATIONS TO FUTURE USE AND RELEGATION
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN L.
Published: January 2008

The Burrell and Cane mixed Poisson model for library loans is used to predict future use of items in a collection. The model is also used to investigate possible relegation procedures based on frequency‐of‐circulation data.
AN ONLINE INDEX ENTRY FORMAT BASED ON MULTIPLE SEARCH TERMS
Authors: CRAVEN TIMOTHY C.
Published: January 2008

A new approach to generating string index entries from concept networks is discussed: terms from multi‐term search specifications are cited near the beginning of the entry, while an articulated entry structure indicative of concept relations is retained.
HOW WELL DO WE ACKNOWLEDGE INTELLECTUAL DEBTS?
Authors: KOCHEN MANFRED
Published: January 2008

Authors of scientific articles often read a paper that fails to cite their prior work when they feel it should have. A survey of university faculty shows the extent to which such opinions abound. If justified, they reflect non‐use of bibliographic search methods, their inadequacy or non‐scholarly use of the result. Principles for the design of a new kind of automated or semi‐automated document retrieval system are formulated. They are analysed and shown likely to improve the scholarly quality of scientific work as represented by the bibliographies in manuscripts reporting that work.
NEAREST NEIGHBOUR SEARCHING IN BINARY SEARCH TREES: SIMULATION OF A MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM
Authors: STEWART MARK , WILLETT PETER
Published: January 2008

This paper describes the simulation of a nearest neighbour searching algorithm for document retrieval using a pool of microprocessors. The documents in a database are organised in a multi‐dimensional binary search tree, and the algorithm identifies the nearest neighbour for a query by a backtracking search of this tree. Three techniques are described which allow parallel searching of the tree. A PASCAL‐based, general purpose simulation system is used to simulate these techniques, using a pool of Transputer‐like microprocessors with three standard document test collections. The degree of speed‐up and processor utilisation obtained is shown to be strongly dependent upon the characteristics of the documents and queries used. The results support the use of pooled microprocessor systems for searching applications in information retrieval.
INTERACTIVE DOCUMENT DISPLAY AND ITS USE IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Authors: BOVEY J.D. , BROWN P.J.
Published: January 2008

Computers with graphics screens and pointing devices such as the ‘mouse’ provide the opportunity for highly interactive user interfaces. This paper describes some novel software for displaying documents on graphics screens: the software provides a fast and simple way for users to peruse documents and to examine the parts that interest them. One application of the software is as a front end to a document retrieval system, since it provides a way for users to identify quickly the records that are of relevance to them and to provide feedback between the user and the underlying retrieval system.
COMPUTER‐BASED LIBRARY SYSTEMS: A REVIEW OF THE LAST TWENTY‐ONE YEARS
Authors: TEDD LUCY A.
Published: January 2008

The developments in the use of computer systems in libraries from 1966 to date have been great. This report, written to coincide with the twenty‐first anniversary of the publication of Program, looks at some of these developments, in Britain, in North America, and in other countries. It traces the history of library automation from the early experimental systems through to the co‐operative systems, the locally developed systems, the mini‐ and microcomputer‐based and stand‐alone integrated systems that are available today.
NON‐PRICE COMPETITION AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE ONLINE INFORMATION INDUSTRY: Q‐ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL DATABASES AND HOSTS
Authors: DAVIES ROY
Published: January 2008

Competition will affect the structure of an industry and the structure will, in turn, affect the behaviour of the firms involved. Two of the most important characteristics of the online information industry are the diversity of hosts and the range of databases offered by each one. The latter is a significant factor in searchers' choices of databases and consequently encourages hosts to compete by acquiring additional databases. This type of non‐price competition plays a key role as it is difficult to make accurate comparisons of the costs of using different hosts. Parallels are drawn with other industries in which competition is, or was, expressed chiefly in the form of capacity. The structure of one sector of the online information industry was investigated by applying Q‐analysis to data on medical databases and hosts. Changes over a three‐year period are identified and are interpreted using concepts derived from ecological niche theory. Finally, the question of what would constitute an optimum structure is considered and it is argued on the basis of an economic theory originally propounded by H. Hotelling that free competition would be unlikely to produce optimal results.
READABILITY FORMULAS: AN OVERVIEW
Authors: TEKFI CHAFFAI
Published: January 2008

The aim of this paper is to review some of the findings in the field of readability research. First, the differences in meaning between the terms ‘readability’ and ‘legibility’ are discussed. Next, the origins and developments of readability formulas are examined in detail. Then, the best‐known formulas for English language material are described so as to give the reader a brief overview of what has been achieved in this field of research. Finally, the principal applications of these formulas are described.
INFORMATION PROCESSING OF REMOTE‐SENSING DATA
Authors: BERRY P.A.M. , MEADOWS A.J.
Published: January 2008

For some time past satellites have been orbiting the Earth and sending back images of it to ground stations. These remote‐sensing images are now accumulating in large numbers: present plans for satellite launches indicate that the growth rate will continue to rise further into the 1990s. In consequence, satellite remote‐sensing data are raising urgent questions concerning their efficient storage and rapid retrieval. The experience of handling of remote‐sensing images is likely to influence future developments in computer graphics information more generally. We review here the current position regarding these problems and the steps being taken to overcome them.
SUBJECT SEARCHING BEHAVIOUR AT THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE AND AT THE SHELVES: IMPLICATIONS FOR ONLINE INTERACTIVE CATALOGUES
Authors: HANCOCK MICHELINE
Published: January 2008

Searching behaviour in a university library is studied using a wholistic approach, encompassing the use of bibliographic tools and shelf browsing. The present study is designed as the first half of a ‘before and after’ study to permit the evaluation of the impact of a future online catalogue on users' searching behaviour. A combined methodology was devised: searchers were encouraged to talk aloud during their search, and this information, together with some probing and real time expert interpretation, enabled the experimenter to record the searching activity on a highly structured observation form. The study reveals the extent of subject searching activity, and suggests that this may have been underestimated in previous studies. The analysis of expressed topics, search formulation strategy and documents retrieved reveals the adaptive nature of the subject searching process, whereby the user adapts to the structure of the available tools. The information retrieval task in a traditional library system is tailored by the system to a single, one dimensional, sequential process. It is suggested that a major obstacle to subject searching effectiveness may lie in the lack of interaction between the different possible approaches in the searching process: the indexing language, the classification, and the titles. It is to be hoped that a future online searching environment will encourage a more truly interactive approach to subject searching.
THE NUCLEAR ZONE OF A LEIMKUHLER CURVE
Authors: ROUSSEAU RONALD
Published: January 2008

A new definition of the nuclear zone of a Bradford or Leimkuhler curve is proposed. A p‐nucleus is defined within which the gradient of the curve is less than the proportion p of its maximum value. This definition is invariant of scale and so is widely applicable. Using Egghe's fitting method it is shown how one can find a p‐nucleus for data which may deviate from a strict Bradford‐Leimkuhler curve (e.g. having a Groos droop or being heavily truncated). A p‐nucleus is proposed for practical applications.
MODELLING THE BRADFORD PHENOMENON
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN L
Published: January 2008

A probabilistic mechanism is proposed to describe various forms of the Bradford phenomenon reported in bibliometric research. This leads to a stochastic process termed the Waring process, a special case of which seems to conform with the general features of ‘Bradford's Law’. The presence of a time parameter in the model emphasises that we are considering dynamic systems and allows the possibility of predictions being made.
THE RECRUITING OF CHEMISTS FOR A CHEMICAL ABSTRACTING AND INFORMATION SERVICE
Authors: DICKMAN JOHN T. , PLATAU GERARD O.
Published: January 2008

Career opportunities for chemists exist not only in the typical research positions, but also in the field of chemical information, particularly document analysis. The document analyst must have a degree in chemistry or in a science to which chemistry is fundamental, preferably an advanced degree and/or experience in research or industry, be able to discern with accuracy that which is new chemistry, and preferably be competently bilingual with respect to foreign language comprehension as well as idiomatic English language writing skills. In recruiting — the process of seeking, informing, and evaluating qualified candidates — Chemical Abstracts Service follows four principal approaches: 1, employment ‘open houses’ in major cities selected for the prevailing special conditions and needs; 2, society placement services at national meetings; national advertising in professional magazines with broad audiences; and college contacts by both communicating with job‐seeking students and informing their counsellors and advisors of employment opportunities in chemical information. While interviews are tailored to the environment encountered, they are primarily a matter of selling the job and organisation and listening to the candidates.
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE CLASSICAL BIBLIOMETRIC LAWS
Authors: EGGHE L.
Published: January 2008

It is well known that the laws of Leimkuhler, Mandelbrot, Lotka and the verbal formulation of Bradford's law are equivalent. In this note we prove an analogous framework of laws in which now the law of Zipf occurs instead of Mandelbrot's law. Laws in this group are Brookes' law and the graphical formulation of Bradford's law. We show that both groups of laws are very different in the sense that they are not even equal asymptotically for high rankings.
EXPERT SYSTEMS AND THE USE OF INFORMATION IN BUILDING DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
Authors: DAVIDSON COLIN H. , DAVIDSON PHILIPPE L. , RUBERG KALEV
Published: January 2008

The building industry, through its structure and its mandate, faces endemic information problems; expert systems are expected to impact positively. Expert systems are suited to situations of uncertainty; knowledge and reasoning are separated, allowing easier updating. Knowledge acquisition from human experts is difficult and problems of information reliability arise, suggesting the scope for cooperation between knowledge engineers and documentalists familiar with the domain. In building, prevailing conditions seem to indicate the appropriateness of expert systems, particularly during the design phase; however, written documentation and general research results are rarely consulted. This highlights the need for an information ‘refining’ stage between production and use. It is easier to set up expert systems for specialised sub‐domains; however, on‐going research is attempting to develop a comprehensive approach to project‐specific information that would be operational from initial design through to completed construction. Criteria for a comprehensive design information system can be listed.
DOCUMENTATION NOTE
Authors: RIMMER BRENDA M.
Published: January 2008

Many abstract journals include patent specifications in their coverage thereby providing references to the most up‐to‐date sources of information which might otherwise be ignored by technicians in smaller enterprises and by students. A survey of some of these journals shows that while many do provide good coverage and indexing, the selection criteria for the patent specifications are sometimes questionable and bibliographic details are inaccurate or misleading. Standards for the identification of patent documents have been developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization and are in world‐wide use by patent offices. Their adoption by abstract journals is strongly recommended.
BRIAN VICKERY A PERSONAL MEMOIR
Authors: FOSKETT DOUGLAS J.
Published: January 2008

During the years following the end of World War II, there was a considerable expansion of library services in industry, and some of the scientists engaged in this activity sought to establish strong links with professional librarians, particularly in universities and city libraries with collections of scientific literature. Among them were Denis Arnold, Wilfred Ashworth and Brian Vickery, and it was at a conference of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association that I first met both Arnold and Vickery. It was my good fortune to discover very quickly a community of interest with Brian, based on our industrial experience, and a similar outlook on a wide range of matters social and political.
B.C. VICKERY: BIBLIOGRAPHY
Authors: EAST HARRY , ADAMS AMBER
Published: January 2008

Brian Vickery has been a prolific writer as this list — which covers a period of forty active years — indicates. There are almost certainly omissions. He has, for example, been an incisive if gentle reviewer, in this and other journals, of the contemporary literature. Only a few of his extended reviews are included here. The bibliography illustrates the breadth of Brian's professional interests: from Bradford's law in the forties to expert systems in the eighties, with significant contributions to contemporary developments throughout the interim. The range is formidable and characteristic.
SOCIAL SCIENTISTS' INFORMATION NEEDS IN THE 1980s
Authors: SLATER MARGARET
Published: January 2008

Some results of a recent study of the information needs of social scientists are selectively summarised and commented upon. Where relevant, to monitor change, this is set in the context of earlier research, notably during the peak period of the 1970s. This paper is not, however, in any sense intended as a balanced state of the art review of research and system design progress since 1970. Instead, it concentrates on the fresh evidence provided by a small‐scale qualitative study by depth interview amongst social scientists, broadly defined, and intermediaries in the social science area.
NATIONAL DOCUMENT SUPPLY AND CATALOGUE ENTRY SUPPLY
Authors: URQUHART DONALD J.
Published: January 2008

The article asks the question why is there a truly national service for document supply but not for document descriptions. It concludes that this is because the document supply service was guided by experimental evidence but that the development of bibliographical services has been guided mainly by tradition and the opinions of librarians.
MARKETING IN THE AUSTRALIAN FOOD INDUSTRY: THE INFORMATION BASE
Authors: MAGUIRE CARMEL , LOVELACE EUGENIA
Published: January 2008

Marketing staff in Australian food manufacturing firms were questioned on use of and expenditure on advertising and marketing information services, on the sources from which they derive new ideas, and on favoured strategies for different aspects of their work. The thirty replies are presented in the framework of marketing theory and of Australian food marketing practice. Some clear contrasts arise between high and low information users though the sample is too small to reveal systematic variations according to size of firm, type of industry, etc. The most striking findings are the high value placed by the marketers on product movement data, the difficulty in getting expenditure data, and the lack of use of formal external information sources, especially the online databases, whether those specialising in marketing data or those with demographic and general economic data of relevance.
DOCUMENTATION NOTE
Authors: BOTTLE ROBERT T. , TEKFI CHAFFAI
Published: January 2008

The readability of three French scientific journals is examined using the Farr‐Jenkins‐Paterson simplification of the Flesch reading ease formula. The results show a relative decrease in readability with time. The results also suggest that these changes are due to changes in style or linguistic factors rather than subject characteristics.
PROGRESS IN DOCUMENTATION
Authors: RODGER ELIZABETH M.
Published: January 2008

The annual reports of British university libraries all tell similar stories in the period under review: each year was described as a period of financial constraint, with hopes expressed that future years would bring an improvement. This never proved to be the case as on the whole the situation gradually worsened, the only respite being occasional periods of level funding.
THE SUBJECT‐OBJECT RELATIONSHIP INTERFACE MODEL IN DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Authors: YANNAKOUDAKIS EMMANUEL J. , ATTAR‐BASHI HUSSAIN A.
Published: January 2008

The Subject‐Object Relationship Interface model (SORI) described in this paper is a novel approach that displays many of the structures necessary to map between the conceptual level and the external level in a database management system, which is an information‐oriented view of data. The model embodies a semantic synthesiser, which is based on an algorithm that maps the syntactic representation of a tuple or a record onto a semantic representation. This is based on table‐driven semantics which are embedded in the database model. The paper introduces a technique for translating tuples into natural language sentences, and discusses a system that has been fully implemented in PROLOG.
THE KNOWLEDGE WAREHOUSE AND LIBRARY USERS
Authors: MARTYN JOHN
Published: January 2008

The Knowledge Warehouse project, an exercise in collecting, storing and re‐using the electronic versions of published text, is briefly described. Some of the factors affecting library and scholarly use of electronic archives and electronically delivered documents are discussed.
DOCUMENTATION NOTE
Authors: SANDISON ALEXANDER
Published: January 2008

Citation analysis is a more complex intellectual task than is often recognised, requiring careful identification of exactly what is being analysed. Every citation represents a decision by one author that he wishes to draw attention to the work of another as being relevant to his theme at a particular point in the document he is writing. That definition leads to many of the factors to be considered, revealing that each citation comes from a pool of citable items and the sizes of the pools represent the denominators in correct statements of the units counted. Such counts must be recognised as ratios which can only be validly compared if the denominators are the same and if the procedures have provided representative and unbiased samples.
A BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM DESIGN
Authors: ELLIS DAVID
Published: January 2008

A behavioural approach to information retrieval system design is outlined based on the derivation of a behavioural model of the information seeking patterns of academic social scientists. The information seeking patterns of a variety of academic social scientists were broken down into six characteristics: starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, and extracting. These characteristics constitute the principal generic features of the different individual patterns, and together provide a flexible behavioural model for information retrieval system design. The extent to which these characteristics are available on existing systems is considered, and the requirements for implementing the features on an experimental system are set out.
THE ROLES OF COLLECTIONS AND THE SCOPE OF COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT
Authors: BUCKLAND MICHAEL K.
Published: January 2008

Libraries assemble very large quantities of materials. These collections perform three quite different roles: archival, dispensing, and bibliographic. The bibliographic role of the collection is compared with bibliographies and catalogues. The distinction between materials and collection development is basic. Collection development in libraries is analogous to file organisation in computing systems and, although commonly viewed narrowly as selection for acquisition, includes a range of decisions which determine the profile of any collection. The rise of remotely‐accessible materials makes possession less important relative to access, has important consequences for all three roles of collections, and indicates a shift in emphasis away from collection development and conventional catalogues and toward bibliography and cooperation.
THE CREATION OF NEW KNOWLEDGE BY INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND CLASSIFICATION
Authors: DAVIES ROY
Published: January 2008

Knowledge can be created by drawing inferences from what is already known. Often some of the requisite information is lacking and has to be gathered by whatever research techniques are appropriate, e.g. experiments, surveys etc. Even if the information has all been published already, unless it is retrieved no inferences will be drawn from it and consequently there will exist some knowledge that is implicit in the literature and yet is not known by anyone. This ‘undiscovered public knowledge’, as it is termed by Swanson, may exist in the following forms: (i) a hidden refutation or qualification of a hypothesis; (ii) an undrawn conclusion from two or more premises; (iii) the cumulative evidence of weak, independent tests; (iv) solutions to analogous problems; (v) hidden correlations between factors. Methods of classification may also play a direct role in the creation of original knowledge. Novel solutions to problems may be discovered by generating different combinations of the basic features of the solutions, as is done in morphological analysis. Alternatively a natural classification may identify gaps in existing knowledge. This paper reviews previous work on producing knowledge by information retrieval or classification and describes techniques by which hidden knowledge may be retrieved, e.g. serendipity in browsing, use of appropriate search strategies and, possibly in the future, methods based on Farradane's relational indexing or artificial intelligence.
ON THE GROWTH OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES WITH TIME: AN EXERCISE IN BIBLIOMETRIC PREDICTION
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN L.
Published: January 2008

Recent work has shown that potentially useful predictions of the circulation of library materials can be made which do not require very restrictive assumptions about underlying probability distributions. In the same spirit, we here consider one of the classic problems of bibliometrics, viz. predicting the number of ‘new’ journals carrying ‘relevant’ articles in the future, using both established parametric approaches and the newer, empirical methods.
THE DETERMINATION OF HISTORICAL POPULAR READING HABITS: A CASE STUDY
Authors: ADAMS J.R.R.
Published: January 2008

The study of popular reading habits is in many ways an important one. While the reading habits of the elite form the leading edge of intellectual thought, the vast majority of humanity have had, in the past as well as the present, different habits and aims. Popular literature has been bought right from the beginning by its readers, but from the seventeenth century there has been an interest in it from above, and from the nineteenth century some attempt to study it in detail. In order to recover the reading habits of a real community (Ulster) between 1700 and 1900, a number of methodologies were examined, and the conclusion was come to that a full examination of contemporary evidence was of the utmost importance. Of great use were several advertisements specifically aimed at the unsophisticated reader, dating from the mid‐eighteenth to the mid‐nineteenth century. The material recovered from these agreed well with other evidence. In addition, a contemporary eighteenth century classification of the physical types of popular reading material was found.
INFORMATION SEEKING IN ONLINE CATALOGUES
Authors: AKEROYD JOHN
Published: January 2008

Three different interfaces for online public access catalogues were evaluated using transaction logging as a methodology. In two cases exercises were set and run against each interface so that results could be critically evaluated to indicate areas of weakness. In all cases a random transaction log was derived and this was used to diagnose system problems and identify patterns of behaviour. Results showed that searches were often difficult to categorise, users employing different approaches to the same end. Users also were prepared to undertake sustained searching until something was retrieved; however they then frequently stopped. Search input problems are also identified and possible areas for further research suggested.
RULES OF INDEXING: A CRITIQUE OF MENTALISM IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL THEORY
Authors: FROHMANN BERND
Published: January 2008

A rule‐governed derivation of an indexing phrase from the text of a document is, in Wittgenstein's sense, apractice, rather than a mental operation explained by reference to internally represented and tacitly known rules. Some mentalistic proposals for theory in information retrieval are criticised in light of Wittgenstein's remarks on following a rule. The conception of rules as practices shifts the theoretical significance of the social role of retrieval practices from the margins to the centre of enquiry into foundations of information retrieval. The abstracted notion of a cognitive act of ‘information processing’ deflects attention from fruitful directions of research.
HYPERTEXT AND THE CONDUCT OF SCIENCE
Authors: DAVENPORT ELISABETH , CRONIN BLAISE
Published: January 2008

Hypertext may transform the practice and culture of science by opening up texts for comment and verification in ways which have previously been impossible. A brief introduction is given to the technology of hypertext, and the effects are explored in contexts which range from the conceptual base of science (modelling, and how and why this is done) to laboratory techniques. Some critical areas of impact are then identified. By allowing us to see, for example, what lies behind protocols and official versions, hypertext may reduce the incidence of scientific fraud; it can stimulate creativity by amplifying the frame of reference and revealing new facts to researchers; it can challenge the exercise of authority by offering access to original or unorthodox material which may be rejected in the process of peer review; it can provide an inside track in a discipline for novices or outsiders who reconstruct the readings of experienced practitioners. Existing systems may be applied to some of the purposes which are described, though the costs of unsubsidised investment may inhibit development.
ONLINE SEARCHING AIDS: A REVIEW OF FRONT ENDS, GATEWAYS AND OTHER INTERFACES
Authors: EFTHIMIADIS EFTHIMIS N.
Published: January 2008

This review reports on the current state and the potential of tools and systems designed to aid online searching, referred to here as online searching aids. Intermediary mechanisms are examined in terms of the two stage model, i.e. end‐user, intermediary, ‘raw database’, and different forms of user — system interaction are discussed. The evolution of the terminology of online searching aids is presented with special emphasis on the expert/non‐expert division. Terms defined include gateways, front‐end systems, intermediary systems and post‐processing. The alternative configurations that such systems can have and the approaches to the design of the user interface are discussed. The review then analyses the functions of online searching aids, i.e. logon procedures, access to hosts, help features, search formulation, query reformulation, database selection, uploading, downloading and post‐processing. Costs are then briefly examined. The review concludes by looking at future trends following recent developments in computer science and elsewhere. Distributed expert based information systems (debis), the standard generalised mark‐up language (SGML), the client‐server model, object‐orientation and parallel processing are expected to influence, if they have not done so already, the design and implementation of future online searching aids.
THE USE OF AUTHORITY: CITATION PATTERNS IN THE ENGLISH COURTS
Authors: CLINCH PETER
Published: January 2008

The use of law reports as a source for data on citation patterns in the courts of law has been pioneered in the United States and to some extent in Canada. Very little work has been undertaken within the English legal system until now. The difficulties faced are noted: the complexity of the court structures and the law reporting system, but above all the limitations of using law reports rather than the original case transcripts which are difficult to obtain. A citation file was built from the citations included in all the issues of fifty‐eight different law report titles issued during 1985. Since there is a degree of duplication in coverage of cases between the law report publications, 5,260 versions of 2,451 unique cases were discovered, yielding a file of 25,868 citations (excluding those to statutory materials). The file was reduced to 11,159 citations (excluding those to statutory materials) by selecting only the longest versions, according to the number of words, of each of the 2,451 cases. Analyses are presented on the general characteristics of the citation file (the proportion of citations to each of twenty‐four different material types), the frequency of citation to statutory materials, case law and other materials (each cross‐tabulated by citing court, subject matter of the citing case and, except for statutory materials, whether the citation occurred in argument by counsel only or in the judgement). For case law only further analyses were performed to identify the jurisdiction of cited cases, self citation practice by different courts, the ageing of authority, the law report titles from which cited cases were taken, the use of unreported cases, and the occurrence of cases without citations to earlier case law.
EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF AN ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOGUE ON SUBJECT SEARCHING BEHAVIOUR AT THE CATALOGUE AND T THE SHELVES
Authors: HANCOCK‐BEAULIEU MICHELINE
Published: January 2008

The second half of a ‘before and after’ study to evaluate the impact of an online catalogue on subject searching behaviour is reported. A holistic approach is adopted encompassing both catalogue use and browsing at the shelves for catalogue users and non‐users. Verbal and non‐verbal data were elicited from searchers using a combined methodology including talk‐aloud technique, observation and a screen logging facility. An extensive qualitative analysis was carried out correlating expressed topics, search formulation strategies and documents retrieved at the shelves. The online catalogue environment does not appear to have increased the extent of subject searching nor the use of the bibliographic tool. The manual precis index supported a contextual approach for broad and more interactive search formulations whereas the opac encouraged a matching approach and narrow formulations with fewer but user generated formulations. The success rate of the online catalogue was slightly better than that of the manual tools but fewer items were retrieved at the shelves. Non‐users of the bibliographic tools seemed to be just as successful. To improve retrieval effectiveness it is suggested that online catalogues should cater for both matching and contextual approaches to searching. Recent research indicates that a more interactive process could be promoted by providing query expansion through a combination of searching aids for matching, for search formulation assistance and for structured contextual retrieval.
CONDENSED REPRESENTATION OF SENTENCES IN GRAPHIC DISPLAYS OF TEXT STRUCTURES
Authors: CRAVEN TIMOTHY C.
Published: January 2008

This article is concerned with how sentences may be represented briefly but informatively in graphic displays of a sentence dependency structure. Different automatic abbreviation schemes were assessed on a sample data set for compression and ambiguity. ‘Speedwriting’ of words longer than five letters yielded a compression to 80% of the source text, with very low ambiguity. This and two other automatic notemaking‐like techniques have been implemented as options in the texnet text structure management system.
ON TERM SELECTION FOR QUERY EXPANSION
Authors: ROBERTSON S.E.
Published: January 2008

In the framework of a relevance feedback system, term values or term weights may be used to (a) select new terms for inclusion in a query, and/or (b) weight the terms for retrieval purposes once selected. It has sometimes been assumed that the same weighting formula should be used for both purposes. This paper sketches a quantitative argument which suggests that the two purposes require different weighting formulae.
GENERATING NEW KNOWLEDGE BY RETRIEVING INFORMATION
Authors: DAVIES ROY
Published: January 2008

Roberts makes an important point in his note when he draws attention to the limitations of databases both in terms of their coverage of the literature and their retrieval capabilities. These limitations will have two effects on their potential use for creating new knowledge: first, some ‘undiscovered public knowledge’ (to use Swanson's term for apparently novel inferences that could be drawn by making connections between facts that are separated in the existing literature) will escape our notice and second, some of the inferences that are made will turn out not to be new after all since they will have already been suggested in the literature that was not retrieved or not covered by the databases.
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT DELIVERY SYSTEMS
Authors: CAWKELL A.E.
Published: January 2008

The desirability of electronic document delivery systems has been argued for years and the reasons for the slow progress of the idea are discussed. An explanation of the technical background is provided followed by some examples of electronic means of information distribution such as facsimile and disc‐based systems. Some experimental projects are described and the article concludes with a description of document image processing systems used for business purposes which have a number of features in common with delivery systems.
A COGNITIVE PROCESS MODEL OF DOCUMENT INDEXING
Authors: FARROW JOHN F.
Published: January 2008

Classification, indexing and abstracting can all be regarded as summarisations of the content of a document. A model of text comprehension by indexers (including classifiers and abstractors) is presented, based on task descriptions which indicate that the comprehension of text for indexing differs from normal fluent reading in respect of: operational time constraints, which lead to text being scanned rapidly for perceptual cues to aid gist comprehension; comprehension being task oriented rather than learning oriented, and being followed immediately by the production of an abstract, index, or classification; and the automaticity of processing of text by experienced indexers working within a restricted range of text types. The evidence for the interplay of perceptual and conceptual processing of text under conditions of rapid scanning is reviewed. The allocation of mental resources to text processing is discussed, and a cognitive process model of abstracting, indexing and classification is described.
DOCUMENT RANKING USING AN ENRICHED THESAURUS
Authors: RADA ROY , BARLOW JUDITH , POTHARST JAN , ZANSTRA PIETER , BIJSTRA DJUJAN
Published: January 2008

A thesaurus may be viewed as a graph, and document retrieval algorithms can exploit this graph when both the documents and the query are represented by thesaurus terms. These retrieval algorithms measure the distance between the query and documents by using the path lengths in the graph. Previous work with such strategies has shown that the hierarchical relations in the thesaurus are useful but the non‐hierarchical relations are not. This paper shows that when the query explicitly mentions a particular non‐hierarchical relation, the retrieval algorithm benefits from the presence of such relations in the thesaurus. Our algorithms were applied to the Excerpta Medica bibliographic citation database whose citations are indexed with terms from the EMTREE thesaurus. We also created an enriched EMTREE by systematically adding non‐hierarchical relations from a medical knowledge base. Our algorithms used at one time EMTREE and, at another time, the enriched EMTREE in the course of ranking documents from Excerpta Medica against queries. When, and only when, the query specifically mentioned a particular non‐hierarchical relation type, did EMTREE enriched with that relation type lead to a ranking that better corresponded to an expert's ranking.
SCIENTISTS AND INFORMATION: II. PERSONAL FACTORS IN INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR
Authors: PALMER JUDITH
Published: January 2008

The Kirton Adaption‐Innovation Inventory and the Learning Styles Questionnaire were used as part of a wider investigation, reported in an earlier paper, to explore the influence of personality, discipline and organisational structure on the information behaviour of biochemists, entomologists and statisticians working at an agricultural research station (n = 67). Results from the psychometric tests were assessed in terms of the groups obtained from a cluster analysis. Groups identified by the KAI as Innovators and by the LSQ as Activists sought information more widely, more enthusiastically and from more diverse sources than other groups. Groups identified as Adaptors by the KAI and Reflectors by the LSQ, were more controlled, methodical and systematic in their information behaviour.