Course Information

Instructor: Debora Shaw
E-mail: shawd@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-3261
    or 888-335-SLIS
Fax: 812-855-6166

Office: Library 011 D
School of Library and Information Science
Main Library - 012
1320 E. 10^th Street
Bloomington, IN 47401-3907

Introduction

The representation and organization of information resources is a primary focus of the information profession. Organizational structures such as classification schemes, indexes, bibliographies and catalogs have been devised to provide access not only to the document, but to its intellectual content - the knowledge or information recorded in the document. The recent

explosive growth in both the number and the variety of information resources serves to underscore the continuing need for application of effective methods of representation and organization.
 

Practical and effective systems of information representation and organization must depend upon a comprehensive understanding not only of the theoretical foundations of bibliographic organization but also of the basic principles of human cognition. Accordingly, this course will investigate the basic principles and theoretical foundations of traditional organizational schemes. This investigation will include materials from traditional librarianship, information science, cognitive science, semiotics, and artificial intelligence and expert systems that have contributed to an understanding of how people obtain, store, retrieve and use information. It will also examine how research in these areas can inform current practices of representation and organization in the design of more effective and more efficient information retrieval systems.
 

Course Objectives

1. To introduce a broad range of knowledge representation models drawn from the fields of information science, communication, semiotics, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and artificial intelligence.
 

2. To develop students' abilities to understand and effectively apply principles of representation and organization currently used to provide access to information resources.
 

3. To provide practical experience in applying the basic principles of knowledge organization and representation to the indexing, abstracting and classification of information in several media.
 

Reading Assignments

A course pack for L505 with many of the assigned readings is available in the IUPUI bookstore. All required readings, including those not in the course pack, and all supplementary readings will be on reserve in the IUPUI University Library. Every student should complete every week's required readings before the class meeting. The exams will be drawn from material in the required readings and related class discussion.
 

Grading

The final course grade will be computed for each student on the basis of grades assigned for the following:

    Mid-term exam 30%
    Class participation and in-class exercises (graded Outstanding/Pass/Fail) 20%
    Leading the class 20%
    Final exam (take home) 30%

                TOTAL 100%
 

Each student is expected to complete all course work by the end of the term. A grade of incomplete (I) will be assigned only if exceptional circumstances warrant, and incomplete work must be completed by August 1, 2000.

A copy of SLIS grading standards will be distributed and discussed in class.

Class Participation: All students are expected to contribute actively to class learning in person (in class) and through the OnCourse teaching and learning environment. These contributions include regular attendance but go beyond that to enhancing the quality and quantity of the face-to-face and electronic discussion, through comments and questions that clarify the topics and move the discussion forward. The assignments and readings for each week must be completed before the class meeting so that substantive and meaningful contributions are possible. It is expected that every student demonstrate respect for the ideas, opinions, and feelings of all other members of the class.

Leading the Class: The first 30 minutes of each session will be reserved for presentation and discussion led by a group of students who will identify and direct discussion of key ideas from the week's readings. Leaders should post any supplemental readings or resources they to the class list one week before their class session (by Friday afternoon) and post questions for discussion to the list at least two days before their class session (by Tuesday evening).
 

Course Schedule

Session: 1. Introduction to organization of knowledge and information
January 14

Buckland, M. (1991). Information as thing. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42, 351-360.

Buckland, M. (1997). What is a "document"? Journal of the American Society for Information Science 48, 804-809.

Bush, V. (1945, July). As we may think. Atlantic Monthly 176(1), 101-108. Available: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm (also available on other websites)

Session: 2. Representation
January 21

Brown, R. (1958). How shall a thing be called? Psychological Review 65, 14-21.

Zerubavel, E. (1991). Islands of meaning. In The Fine Line (pp. 5-20). NY: Free Press.

Session: 3. Enumerative classification
January 28

Bliss, H. E. (1934). The problem of classification for libraries. In The Organization of Knowledge in Libraries (pp. 1-20). NY: H. W. Wilson.

Dewey, M. (1927). Decimal Clasification and Relativ Index (pp. 9-21). 12^th ed. Lake Placid, N.Y.: Forest Press.

Session: 4. Faceted classification
February 4

Kuronen, T. & Pekkarinen, P. (1999). Ranganathan revisited: A review article. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 31, 45-48.

Vickery, B. C. (1966). Faceted classification schemes. In Faceted Classification Schemes (pp 30-40, 42, 45-46, 50. ). New Brunswick, N.J., Graduate School of Library Service, Rutgers, the State University.

Session: 5. Categorization
February 11

Jacob, E. K. (1991). Classification and categorization: Drawing the line. In B. H. Kwasnik & R. Fidel, Advances in Classification Research, Vol. 2, Proceedings of the 2nd ASIS SIG/CR Classification Research Workshop (pp. 67-83). Washington, DC: American Society for Information Science.

Zerubavel, E. (1991). The great divide. In The Fine Line (pp. 21-32). NY: Free Press.

Zerubavel, E. (1991). The social lens. In The Fine Line (pp. 61-80). NY: Free Press.

Session: 6. Mental models
February 18

Norman, D.A. (1983). Some observations on mental models. In D. Gentner & A. L. Stevens (Eds.), Mental Models (pp. 7-14). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Wurman, R. S. (1989). The understanding business. In Information Anxiety: What To Do When Information Doesn't Tell You What You Need To Know (pp. 51-82) NY: Doubleday.

Session: 7. Abstracting
February 25

Lancaster, F. W. (1998). Abstracts: Types and functions. In Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice, 2d ed. (pp. 94-106). Champaign, IL: Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois.

Pinto, M. & Galvez, C. (1999). Paradigms for abstracting systems. Journal of Information Science, 25, 365-380.

Spiteri, L. F. (1997). Library & information science vs business: A comparison of approaches to abstracting. The Indexer, 20, 197-200.

Session 8. Indexing
March 3

Rowley, J. (1992). The subject approach: Introduction, processes, tools and simple evaluation. In Organizing Knowledge (pp. 159-175). Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.
 

Session: 9. Midterm-Exam;
Vocabulary Control, Indexing Languages
March 10

Lancaster, F. W. (1986). The influence of vocabulary on the performance of a retrieval system. In Vocabulary Control for Information Retrieval. 2nd ed. Arlington, VA: Information Resources Press, pp. 131-153

March 17: Spring Break--no class

Session 10. Thesauri - Guest speaker Dr. Uta Priss
March 24

Batty, D. (1989). Thesaurus construction and maintenance: A survival kit. Database, 12(1), 13- 20.

Saarti, J. (1999). Fiction indexing and the development of fiction thesauri. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 31, 85-92.

Session: 11. Automatic support for indexing and classification
March 31

Hersh W. R, Hickam D. H. (1992). A comparison of retrieval effectiveness for three methods of indexing medical literature. American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 303, 292-300.

Session: 12. Hypertext
April 7

Hahn, T. B. (1998). Text retrieval online: Historical perspective on web search engines. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 24(4). Available: www.asis.org/Bulletin/Apr- 98/hahn.html

Lin, X. & Chan, L. M. (1999). Personalized knowledge organization and access for the web. Library & Information Science Research, 21, 153-172.
 

Session: 13. Visual/nontextual information
April 14

Gombrich, E. H. (1972). The visual image. Scientific American, 227(3 ): 82-96.

Shatford Lane, S. (1994). Some issues in the indexing of images. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 45, 583-588.

Session: 14. Metadata
April 21

Gorman, M. (1999). Metadata or cataloguing? A false choice. Journal of Internet Cataloguing, 2, 85-91.

Session: 15. User considerations in the organization and representation of knowledge and information
April 28

Ingwesen, P. (1999). The role of libraries and librarians in organizing digital information. Libri, 49, 11-15.

Simpson, R., et al. (1996). 50 years after "As we may think" : The Brown/MIT Vannevar Bush Symposium. Interactions, 3(2), 47-67. Available from: http://www.cs.brown.edu/memex/Bush_Symposium_Interact.html
 
 
 

Bibliography of Additional Readings
 

Session: 1. Introduction to organization of knowledge and information

Wilson, Patrick (1978). Some Fundamental Concepts of Information Retrieval. Drexel Library Quarterly 14(2): 10-23.

Session: 2. Representation

Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphorical Systematicity: Highlighting and Hiding. In Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 10-13.

Miller, George A. (1956). The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information. Psychological Review 63(2): 81-96.

Wersig, Gernot (1997). Information Theory. In J. Feather and P. Sturges (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science. London: Routledge, pp. 220-227.

Session: 3. Enumerative classification

Buchanan, Brian (1979). Introduction. In Theory of Library Classification. London: Clive Bingley, pp. 7-15.

Rowley, Jennifer E. (1992). The Theory of Bibliographic Classification. In Organizing Knowledge 2d. ed.Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, pp. 176-199.

Rowley, Jennifer E. (1992). Bibliographic Classification Schemes. In Organizing Knowledge 2d. ed. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, pp.200-235.

Shrea, Jesse H. (1965). The Dignity and Advancement of Bacon. In Libraries and the Organization of Knowledge. Hamden CT: Archon Books, pp. 143-150.

Session: 4. Faceted classification

Hunter, Eric J. (1988). Classification Made Simple. Aldershot: Gower, pp. 1-7; 34-49;

Ranganathan, S.R. (1962). Canons of Classification. In Elements of Library Classification. Bombay: Asia Publishing House, pp. 45-69.

Session: 5. Categorization

Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Star, Susan Leigh. (1999). Some Tricks of the Trade in Analyzing Classification. In Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 33-50.

Jacob, Elin K. (1994). Classification and Crossdisciplinary Communication: Breaching the Boundaries Imposed by Classificatory Structure. In H. Albrechtson and S. Oernager (eds.) Knowledge Organization and Quality Management: Advances in Knowledge Organization, vol. 4. Frankfurt/Main: Indeks Verlag, pp. 101-108.

Thompson, Bill and Thompson, Bev (1991). Overturning the Category Bucket. Byte 16(1): 249-256.

Session: 6. Mental models

Rumelhart, David E. (1984). Schemata and the Cognitive System. In R.S. Wyer and T.K. Srull (eds.) Handbook of Social Cognition, vol 1. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 161-188.

Schank, Roger and Kass, Alex (1988). Knowledge Representation in People and Machines. In U. Eco, et al. (eds.) Meaning and Mental Representations. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, pp. 181-200.

Session: 7. Abstracting

Borko, Harold and Bernier, Charles L. (1975). Characteristics and Types of Abstracts. In Abstracting Concepts and Methods. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 5-24.

Fidel, Raya (1986). Writing Abstracts for Free-Text Searching. Journal of Documentation 42(1): 11-21.

Session 8. Indexing

American Society of Indexers. "Frequently Asked Questions About Indexing." http://www.asindexing.org/indfaq.htm

Henninger, Maureen (1999). What Makes a Good Web Index? The Indexer 21(4): 182-183.

Session: 9.Vocabulary Control, Indexing Languages

Rowley, Jennifer E. (1992). The Alphabetical Subject Approach. In Organizing Knowledge 2d. ed.Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, pp.237-278.

Soergel, Dagobert. (1985). Terminological Control. Organizing Information. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 213-224.

Session 10. Thesauri

Aitchison, Jean and Gilchrist, Alan (1987). Thesaurus Construction: A Practical Manual 2d ed. London: Aslib, pp. 12-33.

American Society of Indexers "THESAURI ONLINE" http://www.asindexing.org/thesonet.shtml

Johnson, Eric H. and Cochrane, Pauline A. (1995). "A Hypertextual Interface for a Searcher's Thesaurus" http://csdl.tamu.edu/DL95/papers/johncoch/johncoch.html

Session: 11. Automatic support for indexing and classification

http://www.dataharmony.com/

Green, Rebecca (1992). The Expression of Syntagmatic Relationships in Indexing: Are Frame-based Index Languages the Answer? In N.J. Williamson and M. Hudon (eds.) Classification Research for Knowledge Representation and Organization. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 79-88.

Sparck Jones, Karen (1991). Notes and References on Early Automatic Classification Work. SIGIR Forum 25(1): 10-17.

Session: 12. Hypertext

Dillon, Andrew (1996). Myths, Misconceptions, and an Alternative Perspective on Information Usage and the Electronic Medium. In J.-F. Rouet et al. (eds.), Hypertext and Cognition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum., pp. 25-42.

Liebscher, Peter (1994). Hypertext and Indexing. In R. Fidel et al. (eds.) Challenges in Indexing Electronic Texts and Images. Medford NJ: Learned Information for the American Society for Information Science, pp. 103-109.

Knowledge management (possible additional topic for this session)

Conversations as core business process: Download Brown & Isaacs 1996 pdf under articles:
http://www.theworldcafe.com/resources.html#articles

Open Directory, collecting information about knowledge on the web.
http://dmoz.org/Reference/Knowledge_Management/

Patterns. Making meaning in groups, leveraging language.
http://www.enteract.com/~bradapp/docs/patterns-nutshell.html

Knowledge landscapes: Unlearning to learn and compete. Download Roos & Oliver, 1999 pdf
http://www.anticipator.com/concept/kl.htm

Collaboration & KM leveraging our combined intelligence. Coleman, D. 1999 Groupware: Collaboration and knowledge
sharing. In Liebowitz, J (ed) 1999, Knowledge Management Handbook, Section 12  (on reserve IUPUI University Library)

Session: 13. Visual/nontextual information

Beebe, Caroline and Jacob, Elin K. (1998). Graphic Language Documents: Structures and Functions. In W. Mostafa (ed.), Advances in Knowledge Organization, vol. 6. Frankfurt/Main: Indeks Verlag.

Berinstein, P. (1999). The Big Picture - Do You See What I See? Image Indexing Principles for the Rest of Us. Online 23(2), 85-86, 88.

Query by Image Content for Web Publishing and Multimedia Databases http://wwwqbic.almaden.ibm.com/stage/

SILS Art Image Browser http://www.si.umich.edu/Art_History/

Session: 14. Metadata

Arms, William Y. "Key Concepts in the Architecture of the Digital Library." D-Lib Magazine, July 1995 http://www.dlib.org/dlib/July95/07arms.html

Caplan, Priscilla. "You Call It Corn, We Call It Syntax-Independent Metadata for Document-Like Objects." The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 6, no. 4 (1995). http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v6/n4/capl6n4.html

Heery, Rachel. "Review of Metadata Formats." http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/review.html

Session: 15. User considerations in the organization and representation of knowledge and information

Solomon, Paul (1991). User-Based Methods for Classification Development. Advances in Classification Research vol. 2. Medford NJ: Learned Information for the American Society for Information Science, pp. 163-170.