bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CO‐CITATION CONTEXT ANALYSIS AND THE STRUCTURE OF PARADIGMS
Authors: SMALL HENRY
Published: January 2008

Many information scientists are concerned with the operation of document retrieval systems serving scientists in various fields. The scientists served by these systems are often members of what have been called invisible colleges, groups of scientists in frequent communication with one another and involved with highly specialized subject matters. Often such groups are considered to share an intellectual perspective regarding this subject matter, which is sometimes referred to as a paradigm.
THE USE OF AUTOMATIC RELEVANCE FEEDBACK IN BOOLEAN RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS
Authors: DILLON MARTIN , DESPER JAMES
Published: January 2008

A technique is described for automatic reformulation of boolean queries. Based on patron relevance judgements of an initial retrieval, prevalence measures are derived for terms appearing in the retrieved set of documents that reflect a term's distribution among the relevant and non‐relevant documents. These measures are then used to guide the construction of a boolean query for a subsequent retrieval. To illustrate the technique, a series of tests is described of its application to a small data base in an experimental environment. Results compare favourably with feedback as employed in a SMART‐type system. More extensive testing is suggested to validate the technique.
PROGRESS IN DOCUMENTATION
Authors: SARACEVIC TEFKO
Published: January 2008

The purpose of this paper is to survey and analyse the literature emanating from less developed countries (LDCs) and international agencies and dealing with their perception of the needs of LDCs for scientific and technical information (STI) in relation to social and economic development.
AN EXACT FORMULATION OF BRADFORD'S LAW
Authors: LEIMKUHLER FERDINAND F.
Published: January 2008

An exact, discrete formulation of Bradford's law describing the distribution of articles in journals is derived by showing that Bradford's law is a special case of the Zipf‐Mandelbrot ‘rank frequency’ law. A relatively simple method is presented for fitting the model to empirical data and estimating the number of journals and articles in a subject collection. This method is demonstrated with an example application.
COHERENT INFORMATIONAL ENERGY AND ENTROPY
Authors: AVRAMESCU AUREL
Published: January 2008

Aiming to provide a common theoretical foundation for all known biblio‐metric laws, the author starts from a systemic view of the information transfer process and assimilates it with a physical diffusion process, in particular the conduction of heat in solids. Previous literature induces in the properly ranked space of new authors an interest potential (temperature) confirmed by exchange of reference‐citation pairs, and driving a controlled information flow. The model gives its distribution for given initial and borderline conditions, allowing at the same time the establishment of new definitions for informational energy and entropy, which are coherent with the corresponding physical ones. The theory shows that impulsory energy supply is bound to negative entropy inflow which brakes the normal entropy ‘production’ in the ‘dissipative’ structures of the considered system. In this way the introduction of information into concrete thermodynamic systems analysis can hopefully be expected.
PROGRESS IN DOCUMENTATION
Authors: WHITEHEAD JOHN
Published: January 2008

The ‘Office of the Future’, ‘Office Technology’, ‘Word Processing’, ‘Electronic Mail’, ‘Electronic Communications’, ‘Convergence’, ‘Information Management’. These are all terms included in the current list of buzz words used to describe current activities in the office technology area. Open the pages of almost any journal or periodical today and you will probably find an article or some reference to one or more of the above subjects. Long, detailed and highly technical theses are appearing on new techniques to automate and revolutionize the office environment. Facts and figures are quoted ad nauseam on the high current cost of writing a letter, filing letters, memos, reports and documents, trying to communicate with someone by telephone or other telecommunication means and, most significant of all, the high cost of people undertaking these never‐ending tasks. The high level of investment in factories and plants and the ever‐increasing fight to improve productivity by automating the dull, routine jobs are usually quoted and compared with the extremely low investment in improving and automating the equally tedious routine jobs in the office environment; the investment in the factory is quoted as being ten times greater per employee than in the office. This, however, is changing rapidly and investment on a large scale is already taking place in many areas as present‐day inflation bites hard, forcing many companies and organizations to take a much closer look at their office operations.
THE NEED FOR A THEORY OF CITING
Authors: CRONIN BLAISE
Published: January 2008

Metaphorically speaking, citations are frozen footprints in the landscape of scholarly achievement; footprints which bear witness to the passage of ideas. From footprints it is possible to deduce direction; from the configuration and depth of the imprint it should be possible to construct a picture of those who have passed by, whilst the distribution and variety furnish clues as to whether the advance was orderly and purposive. So it is with citations in respect of the growth of human knowledge; they give substantive expression to the process of innovation, and, if properly marshalled, can provide the researcher with a forensic tool of seductive power and versatility.
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF COMPOUND WORDS IN THESAURI, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BS 5723:1979
Authors: JONES KEVIN P.
Published: January 2008

Although many large systems have by‐passed the problem by employing ‘natural language’, compound words remain a difficulty in thesaurus construction. In the past, rules have been devised which attempted to approach the problem via syntax, but these were not altogether satisfactory. Instead, it is proposed that the major criteria for handling compound words should rest upon their orthography (i.e. physical form), lexicography (dictionary definition) and semantics, with special attention being given to the possible occurrence of homographs—words which differ in meaning, but share a common form. The suggestions contained in BS 5723, Guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri, are assessed in relation to these criteria. BS 5723 is criticized for failing to pay sufficient attention to the requirements of mechanized systems, and for its partial failure in not recording the divergent needs of pre‐and post‐coordinate systems.
SYNOPSIS JOURNALS AS SEEN BY THEIR AUTHORS
Authors: ROWLAND J.F.B.
Published: January 2008

Synopsis journals have been suggested in recent years as a possible solution to some of the problems of scholarly journal publishing. In a synopsis journal, the conventional printed version contains a one‐or two‐page summary of the paper, possibly including one or two diagrams, tables or references. The full paper appears in microfiche or miniprint directly from the typescript, or it is archived and photocopies are made available on request. Typically, the full paper has the conventional layout of a scholarly paper with a short abstract at the start, but the synopsis as such does not appear in the full paper. (Miniprint is printing in reduced size, usually with four or nine typescript pages on one printed page. A magnifying glass is required to read it.)
A CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON LEIMKUHLER'S ‘EXACT’ FORMULATION OF THE BRADFORD LAW
Authors: BROOKES B.C.
Published: January 2008

It is argued that the powerful techniques of OR operate on only a small fraction of the statistical information that the social sciences usually provide. This argument is illustrated by Leimkuhler's recent claim to have found an ‘exact’ fit to the Bradford law. An elementary theorem of Shannon information theory shows that his new function is applied to only 2·3% of the statistical information inherent in the bibliography he chooses and that Bradford's original simple formulation not only fits this segment but also the whole bibliography more closely than the new formulation. As every loss of statistical information can be measured, it can be shown that sophisticated mathematical techniques cannot compensate for the information they squander.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DOCUMENTS READ AND RELEVANT REFERENCES RETRIEVED AS EFFECTIVENESS MEASURES FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS
Authors: LANTZ BRIAN E.
Published: January 2008

The nature and relative merits of two measures of information retrieval system effectiveness, documents read and relevant references retrieved, are discussed. Using data on 2,380 searches completed at London University's Central Information Service, the author presents a mathematical model for the relationship between these two variables. Data suggest that this is best modelled by a monotonically asymptotic function, i.e. by a function increasing to a limit. A negative exponential function provides the best fit to the data, though a simpler hyperbolic function also provides a good fit. The suggested relationship between documents read and relevant references retrieved is further confirmed when the data is analysed by subject area of the user group. The major distinction between groups was the limiting value for mean number of documents read. Medical scientists read considerably more than the average, while engineers read considerably less. Biological, physical and social scientists were indistinguishable from the population as a whole within the statistical limitations of the data. Potential areas for further research are suggested.
THE BRITISH LIBRARY: A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN'S VIEW
Authors: SIMPSON NEIL A.
Published: January 2008

Apart from its unfortunate sharing of initials with another nationalized organization whose record is much less distinguished, though much more familiar to the general public, the name of the British Library (BL) is not the least interesting aspect of its general image. The words suggest to many a single institution, a monolithic national library, but where or what is it? On the other hand, if we were to speak of the British Library Service, further misunderstandings arise, because to many this might mean the whole system of publicly funded libraries. The possibilities of ambiguity are well illustrated in the title of the Fourth Report from the Education, Science and Arts Committee of the House of Commons, Information storage and retrieval in the British Library service.
THE BRITISH LIBRARY AND THE SHIRE COUNTY
Authors: GALT J.E.
Published: January 2008

It would be quite impossible to assess the true value of the British Library as a national support service to any library authority without first sketching the historical background of local government reorganization, as in Devon in 1974, and the resultant upheaval. In comparison with other shire counties, I would not presume to suggest that Devon's problems were any more acute than those of its fellows, but the amalgamation, including three county boroughs, an urban district council, a county council, and a small borough, proved to be a severe testing ground for all concerned.
THE BRITISH LIBRARY AND THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY: A VIEW FROM A BELEAGUERED IVORY TOWER
Authors: AYRES F.H.
Published: January 2008

For centuries the university library has been looked on by both its users and its custodians as something which is inert and lifeless. Paradoxically it has also had a steady growth which has at times appeared to be uncontrollable. However, university libraries in Britain over the last two decades have worked hard to change this image and have had some success in doing so. The new universities created by Robbins brought with them a fresh and dynamic outlook on academic librarianship which sought to provide a library service rather than a library. This new outlook was taken up at first hesitantly and then enthusiastically by the older universities, and British university librarianship entered the eighties buoyantly and optimistically, but with a wary eye on the danger signals that were beginning to appear. The savage cuts which are to be inflicted on all universities over the next few years will almost certainly be felt more deeply in the libraries than in other parts of the university. A book fund will not be sacrosanct if it can be shown that the alternative is an academic appointment.
THE BRITISH LIBRARY: A POLYTECHNIC PERSPECTIVE
Authors: REVILL D.H.
Published: January 2008

The establishment of the British Library (BL) from the Parry Report of 1967, through Dainton in 1969, to the White Paper of 1971 and the Act of 1972, was contemporaneous with the formation of the polytechnics. The latter had their origins in the White Paper of 1966, A Plan for Polytechnics. The majority of the polytechnics were formed in 1970/71. Their libraries have grown, without central government assistance, to respectable size.
THE BRITISH LIBRARY AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH LIBRARIES
Authors: SIMKINS M.A.
Published: January 2008

Donald Urquhart has stated again his excellent principle that libraries are for users. The following is the very personal view of one user—from a research‐based industry—of what I have received from the British Library (BL) and what I still want.
THE ESTIMATION OF TERM RELEVANCE WEIGHTS USING RELEVANCE FEEDBACK
Authors: WU HARRY , SALTON GERARD
Published: January 2008

The term relevance weighting method has been shown to produce optimal information retrieval queries under well‐defined conditions. Unfortunately, the relevance weights cannot be determined in the absence of accurate knowledge of the occurrence frequencies of the terms in the relevant and non‐relevant documents of a collection. This study presents a realistic method for estimating the term relevance weights from information derived in an interactive search environment where relevance assessments for previously retrieved items are used later to construct improved query statements. Procedures are introduced for constructing the initial query weights by using estimated term relevance factors. These initial weights are then modified during the relevance feedback process by utilizing the occurrence frequencies of the terms in the retrieved documents obtained from an earlier search. The procedures used to construct the term relevance weights are covered in detail, and experimental output is included to illustrate the effectiveness of the methods.
EDITING OF CONCEPT SUBNETWORKS WITH A MICROCOMPUTER‐BASED DISPLAY SYSTEM
Authors: CRAVEN TIMOTHY C.
Published: January 2008

A quick, clear, and consistent automatic graphic display system has been developed for easy editing of complex concept subnetworks using only a floppy diskette drive and a PET2001–8 microcomputer. Initially implemented using Farradane's relations, it has an underlying data structure that facilitates merging with a general concept network. The primary display format is an enhanced triangular matrix; concepts may be sorted according to a standard citation order, and the display may also be automatically ‘compressed’.
THE SCIENTIST'S VIEW OF HIS INFORMATION SYSTEM
Authors: ROWLAND J.F.B.
Published: January 2008

For three years from April 1978, the Committee on Scientific Information of The Royal Society conducted a study of the scientific information system of the United Kingdom, funded by the British Library Research and Development Department. One of the major objectives of this study was to formulate policy recommendations on information matters, on behalf of the scientific community, which might subsequently be adopted by The Royal Society as policy statements. Two earlier papers reporting parts of the study have been published.
ASK FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: PART I. BACKGROUND AND THEORY
Authors: BELKIN N.J. , ODDY R.N. , BROOKS H.M.
Published: January 2008

We report the results of a British Library Research and Development Department‐funded design study for an interactive information retrieval system which will determine structural representations of the anomalous states of knowledge (ASKs) underlying information needs, and attempt to resolve the anomalies through a variety of retrieval strategies performed on a database of documents represented in compatible structural formats. Part I discusses the background to the project and the theory underlying it, Part II (next issue) presents our methods, results and conclusions. Basic premises of the project were: that information needs are not in principle precisely specifiable; that it is possible to elicit problem statements from information system users from which representations of the ASK underlying the need can be derived; that there are classes of ASKs; and, that all elements of information retrieval systems ought to be based on the user's ASK. We have developed a relatively freeform interview technique for eliciting problem statements, and a statistical word co‐occurrence analysis for deriving network representations of the problem statements and abstracts. Structural characteristics of the representations have been used to determine classes of ASKs, and both ASK and information structures have been evaluated by, respectively, users and authors. Some results are: that interviewing appears to be a satisfactory technique for eliciting problem statements from which ASKs can be determined; that the statistical analysis produces structures which are generally appropriate both for documents and problem statements; that ASKs thus represented can be usefully classified according to their structural characteristics; and, that of thirty‐five subjects, only two had ASKs for which traditional ‘best match’ retrieval would be intuitively appropriate. The results of the design study indicate that at least some of our premises are reasonable, and that an ASK‐based information retrieval system is at least feasible.
ECONOMIC POSITION OF SOME BRITISH PRIMARY SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS
Authors: ROWLAND J.F.B.
Published: January 2008

Between 1978 and 1981, The Royal Society carried out a study of the scientific information system of the United Kingdom, with financial support from The British Library Research and Development Department. The final report on this study has now been published. This is the final paper in a series giving further detail on some specific projects that were undertaken within the overall study.
ASK FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: PART II. RESULTS OF A DESIGN STUDY
Authors: BELKIN N.J. , ODDY R.N. , BROOKS H.M.
Published: January 2008

In ‘ASK for Information Retrieval: Part I’, we discussed the theory and background to a design study for an information retrieval (IR) system based on the attempt to represent the anomalous states of knowledge (ASKs) underlying information needs. In Part II, we report the methods and results of the design study, and our conclusions.
THE OCCURRENCE OF TITLE WORDS IN PARTS OF RESEARCH PAPERS: VARIATIONS AMONG DISCIPLINES
Authors: DIODATO VIRGIL
Published: January 2008

In response to questions by Buxton and Meadows, there was an examination of the occurrence of title words in the abstracts, first paragraphs, last paragraphs and cited titles of research papers in chemistry, economics, history, mathematics and philosophy for the 1960 and 1970 eras. Title word occurrence in first paragraphs varied little among disciplines. Last paragraphs tended to have most frequent occurrence of title words in history and philosophy, and cited titles had most frequent occurrence in chemistry and mathematics. There was no significant difference between chemistry and mathematics of occurrence in abstracts; abstracts were not available for the other disciplines. Among disciplines taken as a whole, the best reflection of title word occurrence was the collection of abstracts, followed in order by first paragraphs, last paragraphs and cited titles. First and last paragraphs together provided 70% to 80% of the title words. For most disciplines, longer than average titles did demonstrate a higher frequency of title word occurrence in first and last paragraphs than did titles in general. The results implied that indexing based on extraction of title words could employ similar procedures from discipline to discipline. Nevertheless, sensitive information retrieval systems should be prepared for changes in the vocabulary of fields like history and philosophy to occur possibly more slowly than in fields like mathematics and chemistry.
REDUCING THE PERILS OF MERGING BOOLEAN AND WEIGHTED RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS
Authors: RADECKI TADEUSZ
Published: January 2008

A need for developing an information retrieval technique maintaining the appeal of Boolean retrieval schemes and in addition providing the advantages of a ranked search output has been pointed out in the literature for many years. However, a previous attempt to incorporate into the Boolean retrieval schemes a weighting mechanism to produce ranked lists of documents has not been fully successful. Specifically, further research has demonstrated that the theory behind the previous approach is characterized by disturbing ambiguities and inconsistencies, with equivalent Boolean search request formulations yielding different rankings of documents retrieved. As a result of this more recent research an alternative approach has been outlined. However, a closer analysis of this second approach reveals that it is also not free from some intrinsic weaknesses. The present paper provides the results of this new analysis and suggests a more rigorous methodology.
INVISIBLE COLLEGES AND INFORMATION TRANSFER A REVIEW AND COMMENTARY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Authors: CRONIN BLAISE
Published: January 2008

This article reviews existing studies of the invisible college phenomenon and considers the implications for information transfer among researchers, particularly within the social sciences. The likely impact of developments in communications technology on interpersonal networks is discussed and a number of areas for further investigation proposed.
AUTHORS AS MARKERS OF INTELLECTUAL SPACE: CO‐CITATION IN STUDIES OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
Authors: WHITE HOWARD D. , GRIFFITH BELVER C.
Published: January 2008

Interrelations of writings in a complex field such as studies of science, technology and society, turn out to be highly patterned when data on author co‐citations are statistically analysed and mapped. For both authors and specialities, the maps reveal structures of subject matter and intellectual impact, based on the perceptions of hundreds of citers since 1972. A new tool thus is available to historians and others concerned with a field's intellectual development.
SPELLING ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION BY COMPUTER: SOME NOTES AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Authors: POLLOCK J.J.
Published: January 2008

Not only does the problem of correcting spelling errors by computer have a long history, it is evidently of considerable current interest as papers and letters on the topic continue to appear rapidly. This is not surprising, since techniques useful in detecting and correcting mis‐spellings normally have other important applications. Moreover, both the power of small computers and the routine production of machine‐readable text have increased enormously over the last decade to the point where automatic spelling error detection/correction has become not only feasible but highly desirable.
HUMANITIES SCHOLARS: INFORMATION NEEDS AND USES
Authors: STONE SUE
Published: January 2008

The literature of the information needs and uses of humanities scholars in universities is reviewed, using, in the main, material published from 1970 onwards. The areas covered include definitions of humanities, the way humanities scholars work and the materials of their research; secondary services; computers and new technology; the role of libraries and library services and comparisons between humanities and other disciplines. The review ends with a brief assessment of the state of the art; an outline of some unanswered questions and some consideration of the future of humanities. The main conclusions drawn are that the literature is piecemeal, at times confusing, and that progress in providing guidelines to librarians on the basis of systematic enquiry is slow.
HOW DO WE INDEX?: A REPORT OF SOME ASLIB INFORMATICS GROUP ACTIVITY
Authors: JONES KEVIN P.
Published: January 2008

The Aslib Informatics Group and its predecessor the Co‐ordinate Indexing Group have made several attempts to understand the indexing process. This has been sought through seminars and indexing projects. The seminars produced some data on an ad hoc basis and although most have been assembled they have not been reported previously. More recently a formal project, involving sixteen volunteer indexers, has been organized around five short New Scientist articles and the data from this exercise form the major component in the present study. An attempt has been made to correlate indexer performance with the original texts. There appears to be evidence to support the assertion that the selection of index entries is related to the structure of the original texts, especially the frequency of individual words.
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION IN DEVELOPMENT: THE SMALL SYSTEMS SYNDROME AND THE INVERTED BINOCULAR STRATEGY
Authors: SCHWARZ STEPHAN
Published: January 2008

There is nowadays a fair consensus among politicians, theoreticians and practitioners involved in development strategies that a certain level of indigenous science and technology (S & T) is a prerequisite for satisfactory control of local production developments, and thereby reduced dependence on external interests. From this understanding derives the need for access to scientific and technical information (STI) and the extension to the entire spectrum of ‘know‐what, know‐how, know‐what‐for’ etc. that links basic research through technical R & D to industrial production and marketing. That ‘information transfer’ (scientific, technical, socio‐economic) is regarded as being of key importance is clear from the immense literature emanating from national and international bodies, reaching a peak in the Unisist II and UNCSTD conferences. No doubt this is a serious concern, even if it sometimes takes bizarre expressions, like the political weight given to the subtle distinction between whether STI is ‘a common property of humanity’ or only ‘an important asset’.
APPLYING AUTOMATED TECHNIQUES TO ARCHIVES ADMINISTRATION: A COMMENTARY ON THE PRESENT SITUATION AND AREAS OF LIKELY PROGRESS
Authors: COOK MICHAEL
Published: January 2008

A broad discussion of progress in the automation of archive administration, in the light of links between archivists, museum staffs, librarians and information scientists. A brief survey of the history and literature of the subject is followed by an analysis of the special problems involved in archival description (uniqueness, bulk, new accruals, the need to describe at different levels). The special nature of records management and the control of machine‐readable archives, and the nature of the professional response of archivists are considered and current problems (under‐use of some materials combined with excessive user demand). Conclusions include a recommendation for further development of an agreed data standard.
FULLY AUTOMATIC BOOK INDEXING
Authors: DILLON MARTIN , MCDONALD LAURA K.
Published: January 2008

The Fully Automatic Syntactically‐based Indexing of Text (FASIT) system represents the contents of a document without a full parse or semantic analysis of the text. Content‐bearing units are isolated and then grouped into quasi‐synonymous classes whose main term is used to index the document. Previous experiments with FASIT demonstrated its usefulness in an associational retrieval environment; the experiment described here explores FASIT's value as a book‐indexing system. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this indexing approach offers the promise of being practical and effective.
ASSESSING THE IMPACT AND BENEFITS OF INFORMATION AND LIBRARY RESEARCH
Authors: MARTYN JOHN , CRONIN BLAISE
Published: January 2008

A study was commissioned by the British Library Research & Development Department (BLRDD) to consider ways in which research effectiveness could be assessed. A number of possible approaches are outlined and their appropriateness discussed in relation to a variety of projects funded either by BLRDD or its predecessor the Office for Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). A discussion of the problems associated with research evaluation follows.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION
Authors: Sweeney Russell
Published: January 2008

The 19th edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification was published in 1979 and will be the last edition to appear under the editorship of Benjamin A. Custer, the editor since the 16th edition, published in 1958. There is thus a suitable opportunity to review the evolution of the Classification over the past thirty years, and to indicate the likely developments in the 20th edition and beyond. This paper is not a literature review although reference will be made to pertinent contributions in the literature. There is a substantial body of literature on the Dewey Decimal Classification and the most recent portion is covered in two bibliographies.
FICTION RETRIEVAL: EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF A SEARCH SYSTEM BASED ON USERS' VALUE CRITERIA (PART 1)
Authors: MARK PEJTERSEN ANNELISE , AUSTIN JUTTA
Published: January 2008

These papers describe the development and evaluation of a new classification system for fiction based on an analysis of users' formulations of needs. Users of fiction generally do not require specific books to be precisely identified. Their criteria for accepting books are related to a combination of several different features, such as subject matter, emotional experience, readability etc. Previous attempts to design alternative classification schemes for fiction are reviewed, and the inadequacies of these systems are discussed. New retrieval tools such as a systematic card catalogue and alphabetic indexes have been constructed on the basis of a multi‐dimensional classification system. A number of search tests in laboratory conditions have been conducted in order to evaluate the different search tools. Finally, issues like differences between concept identification in fiction and non‐fiction, recall/precision, vocabulary control etc., are raised and suggestions are made for future experiments with subject approaches to the searching of fiction.
UK MARC AND US/MARC: A BRIEF HISTORY AND COMPARISON
Authors: LONG ANTHONY
Published: January 2008

This paper traces the development of the US/MARC and UK MARC formats from their origins to the present day, showing some of the divergence between them and illustrating how Library of Congress records have been converted to UK MARC by a continually changing program. Some explanation is included of how the divergence occurred, which may be seen as typical of the ways in which national MARC formats have developed and the ensuing need for international formats is highlighted.
INTERNATIONAL ACCESS TO BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA: MARC AND MARC‐RELATED ACTIVITIES
Authors: HOPKINSON ALAN
Published: January 2008

Formats for the exchange of bibliographic data use the ISO 2709 record structure which started out as the structure for the Library of Congress MARC format. The UNISIST Reference Manual was an early international exchange format developed by ICSU‐AB and Unesco and included cataloguing rules suitable for use by A & I Services. The national libraries developed UNIMARC under IFLA auspices as their exchange format since the national formats were not totally compatible. Unesco, concerned about the lack of compatibility between the major international exchange formats, sponsored a symposium, resulting from which a Common Communication Format was developed and ISO began work on a data element directory. International formats also exist for nuclear and agricultural information as well as for serials data. Other formats exist which are used internationally and have different structural characteristics. The International MARC Network Study Steering Committee has taken an interest in the exchange of bibliographic data and has organized a test of UNIMARC and supervised a UNIMARC Handbook to clarify the format. International exchange formats tend to acquire accompanying cataloguing rules: indeed they will only be really effective if there are internationally accepted cataloguing rules and authority files.
FICTION RETRIEVAL: EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF A SEARCH SYSTEM BASED ON USERS' VALUE CRITERIA (PART 2)
Authors: MARK PEJTERSEN ANNELISE , AUSTIN JUTTA
Published: January 2008

These papers describe the development and evaluation of a new classification system for fiction based on an analysis of users' formulations of needs. Users of fiction generally do not require specific books to be precisely identified. Their criteria for accepting books are related to a combination of several different features, such as subject matter, emotional experience, readability etc. Previous attempts to design alternative classification schemes for fiction are reviewed, and the inadequacies of these systems are discussed. New retrieval tools such as a systematic card catalogue and alphabetic indexes have been constructed on the basis of a multi‐dimensional classification system. A number of search tests in laboratory conditions have been conducted in order to evaluate the different search tools. Finally, in this second paper, issues like differences between concept identification in fiction and non‐fiction, recall/precision, vocabulary control etc., are raised and suggestions are made for future experiments with subject approaches to the searching of fiction.
INTERACTIVE INFORMATION NETWORKS AND UK LIBRARIES
Authors: VICKERY BRIAN , HESELTINE RICHARD , BROWN CAROLYN
Published: January 2008

New technology continues to have a powerful influence on information provision. The use of mainframe computers for information processing, and online access to them via telecommunications, are well established. Magnetic information stores are being supplemented by video disks. Electronic document delivery is being explored. Microcomputers (either stand‐alone or front‐end) are playing a larger role. New forms of telecommunication link are speeding message transmission.
AUTOMATIC SEARCH TERM VARIANT GENERATION
Authors: SPARCK JONES K. , TAIT J.I.
Published: January 2008

The paper describes research designed to improve automatic pre‐coordinate term indexing by applying powerful general‐purpose language analysis techniques to identify term sources in requests, and to generate variant expressions of the concepts involved for document text searching.
GEOFFREY WOLEDGE
Authors: WILSON LESLIE
Published: January 2008

Thirty‐seven years as a member of the Editorial Board of a learned journal is a remarkable record in any circumstances. To have served in that capacity in a field which has undergone such rapid and spectacular development as library and information management, and to have exerted upon it a consistently constructive influence for so long, is cause for celebration beyond the normal. It is fitting, therefore, that his colleagues should offer this Festschrift issue of the Journal of Documentation to Geoffrey Woledge as a tribute not only to his part in maintaining the high academic standards which Aslib has always prescribed for its premier journal, but also to his distinguished career in librarianship which has had a lasting effect upon many aspects of our professional scene. Having worked harmoniously with him as my principal guide and mentor for some fifteen of the twenty‐eight years of my directorship of Aslib, I am delighted to be associated with this acknowledgement of his work.
SCONUL: THE CONTRIBUTION OF GEOFFREY WOLEDGE
Authors: BOWYER T.H.
Published: January 2008

In the post‐war years 1945–50, university and other large research libraries were confronted both by new problems and new opportunities. First, university libraries had to provide for greatly increased student populations, swelled by returning ex‐servicemen and women; secondly, the supply of foreign books was uncertain, unreliable and subject to the bureaucratic delays of import controls; and thirdly, the atmosphere of post‐war reconstruction called for new and more structured approaches to the provision of scientific information. For their effective resolution, these challenges required group consideration and communal action. Amongst academic librarians, there was a widespread but ill‐focused feeling that if the problems of the day were to be successfully tackled and the opportunities seized, the Library Association was not the most suitable medium through which to address them. It was evident that public library affairs had achieved an overwhelming dominance in its collective attitudes and actions. The University and Research Section, the principal channel through which academic libraries input their views, cut little ice with the powerful Council of the Association. Indeed, the Section was at loggerheads with the Council over several matters and itself was far from united. Although it could still be said to represent the university library interest, in the fast‐growing post‐war educational scene its membership had become more diffuse and its purposes less distinct. A number of librarians had come to believe that there was a positive need for an authoritative body that could speak for large national and university libraries and represent their collective views to governmental and other organizations.
TOWARDS INFORMETRICS: HAITUN, LAPLACE, ZIPF, BRADFORD AND THE ALVEY PROGRAMME
Authors: BROOKES B.C.
Published: January 2008

Haitun has recently shown that empirical distributions are of two types—‘Gaussian’ and ‘Zipfian’—characterized by the presence or absence of moments. Gaussian‐type distributions arise only in physical contexts: Zipfian only in social contexts. As the whole of modern statistical theory is based on Gaussian distributions, Haitun thus shows that its application to social statistics, including cognitive statistics, is ‘inadmissible’. A new statistical theory based on ‘Zipfian’ distributions is therefore needed for the social sciences. Laplace's notorious ‘law of succession’, which has evaded derivation by classical probability theory, is shown to be the ‘Zipfian’ frequency analogue of the Bradford law. It is argued that these two laws together provide the most convenient analytical instruments for the exploration of social science data. Some implications of these findings for the quantitative analysis of information systems are briefly discussed.
‘A NEW LABORATORY OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH’: THE BRITISH LIBRARY OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE
Authors: CLARKE D.A.
Published: January 2008

The British Library of Political and Economic Science, of which Geoffrey Woledge was Librarian from 1944 to 1966, and which was the major interest and achievement of his professional life, was from the outset intended to serve as a national collection of materials for research in the social sciences, serving all who need this material, while also acting as the working library of the London School of Economics.
HIERARCHIC AGGLOMERATIVE CLUSTERING METHODS FOR AUTOMATIC DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION
Authors: GRIFFITHS ALAN , ROBINSON LESLEY A. , WILLETT PETER
Published: January 2008

This paper considers the classifications produced by application of the single linkage, complete linkage, group average and Ward clustering methods to the Keen and Cranfield document test collections. Experiments were carried out to study the structure of the hierarchies produced by the different methods, the extent to which the methods distort the input similarity matrices during the generation of a classification, and the retrieval effectiveness obtainable in cluster based retrieval. The results would suggest that the single linkage method, which has been used extensively in previous work on document clustering, is not the most effective procedure of those tested, although it should be emphasized that the experiments have used only small document test collections.
ON THE UNITY OF BRADFORD'S LAW
Authors: MAIA M.J.F. , MAIA
Published: January 2008

It is shown that there is no ambiguity in Bradford's theory of distribution. Starting with the two basic postulates laid down by Bradford, a mathematical expression is derived such that its curve agrees with the experimentally plotted data.
TERMINOLOGICAL CONSISTENCY IN ABSTRACT AND CONCRETE DISCIPLINES
Authors: BONZI SUSAN
Published: January 2008

This study tested the hypothesis that the vocabulary of a discipline whose major emphasis is on concrete phenomena will, on the average, have fewer synonyms per concept than will the vocabulary of a discipline whose major emphasis is on abstract phenomena. Subject terms from each of two concrete disciplines and two abstract disciplines were analysed. Results showed that there was a significant difference at the ·05 level between concrete and abstract disciplines but that the significant difference was attributable to only one of the abstract disciplines. The other abstract discipline was not significantly different from the two concrete disciplines. It was concluded that although there is some support for the hypothesis, at least one other factor has a stronger influence on terminological consistency than the phonomena with which a subject deals.
LINKING A MEDICAL USER SURVEY TO MANAGEMENT FOR LIBRARY EFFECTIVENESS: I, THE USER SURVEY
Authors: BREMBER V.L. , LEGGATE P.
Published: January 2008

The paper reports an intensive survey of medical library users in the Oxford teaching hospitals and the University science departments. Six survey techniques were used and selected results are given for each. It was concluded that the characteristic having most influence on information‐seeking behaviour and library usage was the relative amounts of the user's time devoted to clinical practice and to research respectively. Three distinct user types were identified and ‘rich picture’ descriptions based on the survey evidence are given for each. A second paper will describe a systems study which linked the survey to library management decision‐making.
TELETEX BASED ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT DELIVERY (PROJECT HERMES)
Authors: AMY SUSAN J.
Published: January 2008

Project HERMES, the proposed electronic document delivery service sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry, is described. HERMES is characterized by the participation of major publishers, industrial and public libraries and national government and by the use of Teletex for both document ordering and delivery. For the first phase of the project, provision of three facilities—electronic document ordering and delivery, automatic document delivery and electronic mail—to a pilot group of some sixty organizations is proposed. The major aim of the project is to promote and gain experience of the use of Teletex within the information and publishing community. [The Department of Trade and Industry announced in December 1984 that it does not intend to proceed with Project HERMES. The Journal of Documentation Editorial Board nevertheless feels that Susan Amy's paper should be published on the grounds that the proposals it details remain one possible approach to the implementation of a demonstration document delivery service based on teletex.]
LINKING A MEDICAL USER SURVEY TO MANAGEMENT FOR LIBRARY EFFECTIVENESS: II, A CHECKLAND SOFT SYSTEMS STUDY
Authors: BREMBER V.L.
Published: January 2008

The soft systems methodology developed by Checkland was chosen as a way of relating the evidence of a user survey to the practical problems of library management. The user survey has been described in a previous paper. This paper presents the methodology and discusses it in terms of the systems approach, before showing how it was used in this case. The outcomes of the study were an indication of the content of a useful model of the users and guidelines for deriving criteria for effectiveness based on the model. Difficulties in using the methodology are described, and conclusions for library management and implications for library and information science research are presented.
A CITATION ANALYSIS OF ARTICLES IN SERIES
Authors: DIODATO VIRGIL
Published: January 2008

A study of 100 series of articles in science and technology examined how well members of a series cite each other. Citations from one article to another were either excellent, good, fair, poor, or nonexistent, depending on how much information could be gotten about the cited article from the citing article. It was found that 11% of all possible citations from earlier to later articles in a series—foward citations—were excellent, good, or fair. 73% of citations from later to earlier articles—retrospective citations—were excellent, good, or fair. It is recommended that the author of a series clearly point readers to at least one retrospective member of the series and that readers use a four‐step method to identify all members of a given series.
CURRICULA IN SCHOOLS OF LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION STUDIES: AN INVESTIGATION OF CONSTRAINTS AND POSSIBILITIES
Authors: DAVINSON DONALD , ROBERTS NORMAN
Published: January 2008

An investigation was undertaken in early 1984 in fourteen schools of librarianship and information studies (SLIS) in England and Wales. The extent to which information technology (IT) concepts have been incorporated into SLIS syllabuses was studied in conjunction with heads of SLIS and by an examination of their curriculum statements. No differences could be detected as a result of different institutional affiliations in the capacity or desire of SLIS to enter the IT field. Wide variations in the extent and quality of activity in the IT field were observed however from one SLIS to another. Some SLIS are seriously affected by ponderous administrative procedures imposed upon them. All SLIS acknowledge that the traditional market for their graduates is changing but no consensus emerges as to how much and in which directions. Evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes in curricula were expected to be adequate as a coping strategy. It is too early to assess the success of the adaptive responses which have been instituted in most SLIS. Resources—revenue, capital and, especially, staffing expertise are a serious problem for the future in all SLIS.
METHODOLOGICAL QUALITY AND CITATION FREQUENCY OF THE CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION LITERATURE
Authors: BRUER JOHN T.
Published: January 2008

Bibliometric analysis of research reports in continuing medical education that were evaluated for their methodological quality is used to assess the relation between methodological rigour and citation frequency. There is a positive, significant but low correlation between rigour and citation, and evidence that rigorous work will be cited independent of where the article is published. There is no strong evidence that study design is correlated with subsequent citation. Of the five methodological standards used in the bibliography, outcome measure is the best predictor of citation frequency. In certain cases citation measures might be used as guides to or indicators of methodologically rigorous research reports.
ACCESS TO MOVING IMAGE DOCUMENTS: BACKGROUND CONCEPTS AND PROPOSALS FOR SURROGATES FOR FILM AND VIDEO WORKS
Authors: O'CONNOR BRIAN C.
Published: January 2008

This study examines the fashioning of a model for a surrogate to facilitate user selection of the most appropriate film or video work for a particular use. Such a surrogate is intended to enable a user to bring to a collection of moving image documents the habits of scrutiny characteristic of the selection and critical use of print linguistic works. Images bear a different relationship to objects and events than do words and the manner in which moving image documents generate meaning differs from the way strings of words communicate. A matrix of a time line and several characteristics of the film or video document is proposed as the primary aspect of the surrogate graphic record. Issues of description and sampling within the abstracting process are raised. The proposed surrogate is seen as a system for achieving an individual, more book‐like use of film and video documents.