Helena Mc Keever

ID. 3112874
Information Sources and Services 72.270
Assignment 2
Words (1800) excludes snip tool and reference list.
I dont plan to take you through the complete methods of searching the
catalogue today. There are many search strategies and an unending
resource of articles, books and electronic resources to view in library
catalogues that many long, jammed-packed years have created with no
moment of slowing down. A student with a healthy interest in multiple
subject areas and formats will rise to the challenge of subject access in the
library.

It is useful to be aware of the variety of catalogues available in the various

university, public, school and special libraries and to browse the help
sections of these catalogues. Many newer catalogues now allow integrated
searching of the physical library resources or collections on the library
catalogue and many of the libraries databases. An example of this in
Hawkes Bay is the new Kotui catalogue soon to come to the Hastings
Public Libraries. This computer systems allow users to search physical and
electronic resources from one portal.

For those of you who come freshly to subject searching this presentation
looks at what controlled vocabulary and natural language are and how they
are used for subject searching. These are likely to be new concepts for first
year university or polytechnic students to hear.
What is Controlled Vocabulary?
The Open Polytechnic (2012) notes that controlled vocabulary are words
taken from a predefined list of subject terms and added to the catalogue or
index record by the cataloguer or indexer to create virtual groupings of
information. Many serial articles have controlled vocabulary chosen by the
author of the article, or by the publisher of the journal. In libraries, the term
subject heading is the subject term most frequently used in controlled
vocabularies (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2 p. 3).
Nga Upoko Tuktuku http://mshupolo.natlibr.govt.nz/mshupolo/index.htm is a
controlled vocabulary that has been developed in New Zealand for New
Zealand libraries. It describes information that is written in Te Reo Maori,
and/or is about Maori and this scope was broadened to include all
information in all catalogues in 2009 (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2 p.
19).
Most libraries in New Zealand use the general controlled vocabulary Library
of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These headings are still the largest
general list of subject headings in English (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2
p. 22). It tries to cover all subject areas. More than one subject heading can
be provided for any given work, and subject searchers can find information
on related subjects by using cross references to related, broader or
narrower terms. It involves considering all possible words that might be

used for a subject, choosing one word or phrase to represent the subject
and then considering the relationships that subject has with others.
When searching for a book using subject headings you will search the
controlled vocabulary to see the related search terms when you open the
catalogue record. By clicking on those related terms you will then be able
to bring up an index and see the books or other items related to that
search term.
You can also do a keyword search first. This search uses natural language.
You can look at the results and choose the most relevant items and then
look at what subject headings are on that record as well as related subject
headings in the catalogue record and then link into the controlled
vocabulary from the Library of Congress subject headings or the Maori
Subject headings. .
The Open Polytechnic (2012) notes that users are often unaware that the
subject headings used in the catalogue are from an established list. As a
general observation many users do not work with the same catalogue
enough to become aware of its more sophisticated features such as library
subject headings. They guess at keywords.
What is Natural Language?
There are two types of words that can be used to provide subject access:
natural language and controlled vocabulary.
Natural Language are the words (often called keywords) that appear in
the text of the actual item (book, article and so on), including title, author
name,
Publisher and contents, or words in common everyday use that indicate
what the
item is about and form a summary or abstract of the item. These may be
added to
the catalogue or index record, or (increasingly) will be drawn from the full
text of
the item itself. (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2 p. 3). You access these
word in the catalogue when you do a keyword or quick search.
The World Wide Web has made natural language the default way of
searching for most people and for non librarians. People with a computer
have certain expectations about how to search and get large results lists
from search engines using natural language. Users often carry these
expectations to library catalogues. (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2, p.1)
Advantages and Disadvantages
Three methods of subject searching: title keyword, subject heading
searches and keyword searching across the whole record have advantages
and disadvantages when it comes to using natural language and
controlled vocabulary.

 Controlled vocabulary has hierarchical relationships and cross references.

This allows you to choose the best subject heading for your topic. A
disadvantage of Natural language it that it doesn't. One advantage if
natural language is that it is a relatively low-cost method, as most of the
information is simply copied from the original item. The intellectual input
at the beginning stage is minimal. This is cheaper than having someone
work out what an item is about and select suitable subject terms from a
controlled vocabulary to add to a record. Natural language may also
reflect more closely the terms used by the researcher. It is assigned by the
computer rather than the indexer.
Natural language indexing is particularly appropriate when searches
involve specific words known to be used in the source material for
example proper nouns such as brand names and company names.
Natural language can be very accurate, especially for very current and/or
specialised topics that may have their own unique terminology. The
terminology is also familiar to users. The Open Polytechnic (2012) notes
that library catalogue users are familiar with this approach because it is
what they do with search engines. (The Open Polytechnic, Module 2, p.1).
To illustrate this with an example from a real library catalogue we can
search Kotui for a keyword. The below screen capture uses snip tool to
show the 431 results that the Kotui catalogue displays for the keyword
search Waitangi, which is a specialised topic at Hastings Public Libraries.
Hit search and these are the results displayed. By clicking on the blue
Only Show Available tab you can see a list of search results that are
available in a particular library.

You can click on any of these titles these are hyperlinks. You can also limit
and search to include or exclude items based on publication year or format
(such as DVD or reference material published in 2012, for example) You can
save your library search and email search to yourself by selecting the

select an action tab. When you look in your email inbox you will see a list of
search results.
When using Kotui there is not a plain keyword search as there is in a
catalogue such as Spydus. Searching the term all fields is the same thing
as a plain keyword search of all fields. You can see this with the related
keyword phrase search for the treaty of Waitangi as shown. There are 177
hits.

We can contrast this with a title search, The Treaty of Waitangi and see these
135 results

 There are generally fewer results in a title search compared with a keyword
search. Both use natural language to search but the keyword or
everything search searches across more fields than does the title search
which specifically used natural language to search the title field. In Kotui
there is a simple search title. There is not a keyword in title search
although there is a keyword in author search and a keyword in subject
search.
A subject browse or subject everything search of The treaty of Waitangi
and Waitangi brings the following results on the Kotui Catalogue.

 We can zoom in to see the subject heading listed on the left of this
catalogue. The subject headings link into the Library of Congress Subject
Headings or Maori Subject Headings, for example the Maori subject
heading Tiriti o Waitangi is shown in the subject terms list when we click
through on the blue hyperlink to look at the title Healing our History as
now shown.

One advantage of using terms from a controlled vocabulary is that

controlled vocabulary can help compensate for the problems found when
relying solely on natural language terms. All items on the same topic will
have the same subject headings. Related subject heading are also visible
and lead to other relevant items for the user. Another advantage is that it
doesnt matter what words have been used in titles or abstracts, nor does
it matter how they are spelled or combined, as the controlled vocabulary
will provide a standard approach. For example, an art book that was
published with a keyword in the title purposely spelt incorrectly will still be
found using the same subject headings. (1641)
One limitation of controlled vocabulary is that users must know the correct
term or terms for their subject, and it is not always easy to determine the
most appropriate one(s). This can be overcome by first searching for the
subject you are interested in, using a keyword search, and then identifying
the relevant subject headings from items in the results lists. We can then
search using those subject headings or related subject headings or a cross
reference to a subject heading.
Another limitation of controlled vocabularies used in New Zealand is that
they were not written here. For example, the Library of Congress Subject
Headings, which is used in many New Zealand library catalogues, is
American. This means that users will not always find New Zealand
terminology or spelling for the subjects they are seeking.
For example, in the Library of Congress Subject Headings, the term for
what

New Zealanders call railways is railroads. However, a cataloguer may

use cross-references from one term to another will help overcome this.
(The Open Polytechnic, Module 2, pp.3-4).
With the introduction of the internet and automated cataloguing natural
language has become the default method of searching of many of todays
students. However learning to use the subject headings in the library
catalogue so that your searches make use of the indexes is important for
your research skills. It is necessary to use the subject headings or to
general keyword and then subject browse to get the benefit of the library
defined Library of Congress subject headings and the Maori subject
headings.

Reference List

Hastings District Libraries Kotui Catalogue. Retrieved May 18 2013 from

http://ent.kotui.org.nz/client/hastings
National Library Maori Subject Heading. Retrieved May 10 2013 from
http://mshupolo.natlibr.govt.nz/mshupolo/index.htm
Rowley, J. (1992). Alphabetical indexing languages. In Organizing
knowledge: An introduction to information retrieval (2nd ed., pp.267, 272276). Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
Rowley, J., & Farrow, J. (2000). Indexing and searching languages. In
Organising knowledge: An introduction to managing access to information
(3rd ed., pp. 123-133). Aldershot, England: Gower.

So, if you are doing an in-text reference to something in Module 3, the full
reference would be:
The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. (2012c). Module 3: Looking after the
archives. In 72274 Archives management. Lower Hutt, New Zealand: Author.

While the in-text reference would be:

(The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, 2012c, Maori and archives, para. 5.) (Or
whatever!!) Because there is no page number, the section title and paragraph
replaces the page number.

I hope this helps.

It's not a published document, and therefore not available to anyone else. Giving
a location on the network drive is not helpful; it won't enable anyone else
to get to it, and it's not a unique location.
Have a look at these:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/25/ (search for
'unpublished' on this page)
http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/APA14.html
I'd call it an unpublished guide or unpublished template.
Note that even though not published, it's correct to have a default
publisher. But you cite that publisher as you do with OP course materials
(hint).