Perhaps the greatest power of folksonomies, especially when set against controlled vocabularies like the Library of Congress Subject Headings, lies in their capacity to empower user communities to name their own resources in their own terms. This article analyzes the potential and limitations of both folksonomies and controlled vocabularies for…

A report of several comparisons designed to measure the retrieval effectiveness of machined-aided indexing and manual indexing. (Author)

A study of the coverage of a sample of the geochemical literature by major indexing and abstracting services showed a need for greater cooperation and coordination among the services. (Author/PF)

The Cranfield Project was done in a laboratory sphere. In a practical situation, it is impossible to determine how many documents are relevant to a certain question. Although in the Cranfield Project collections of different sizes have been used, these collections do not fulfill the requirements that the small collections are randomly taken from…

Reviews selected research on content-enriched access (including information components such as tables of contents and indexes) in information retrieval systems. It is concluded that well-selected content components and full-text materials in electronic systems must be linked with improved search methodologies, better interfaces, and greater…

This third quarterly report for the period January to March 1977 describes the production schedule, records, and estimated costs and times in creating the Subject Access Project data base. Plans for on-line use of the data base and search strategy design are outlined. A table of specifications for preparing the data base for on-line searching is…

The Subject Access Project second quarterly report for September to December 1976 summarized in-progress work to improve subject access to monographs. Activities include: (1) analysis of book indexes and tables of contents for terms to augment MARC subject description; (2) analysis of additional book sections--e.g., maps, illustrations, charts,…

An attempt is being made to improve subject access to monographs by augmenting MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) records. Working with a sample of books drawn from the collections of the University of Toronto and comprising a number of subject areas in the humanities and social sciences, the project plans to enlarge the MARC description by using…

Findings are reported for a project designed to improve subject access to books by augmenting MARC records with subject descriptions. A BOOKS data base, consisting of humanities and social science monographs, was created and made available for online searching. The availability of suitable information in books to produce augmented subject…

The effectiveness of current subject cataloging practices for assigning geographical headings to local historical records in meeting the requirements of an escalating number of genealogist-patrons was examined. The findings indicated that catalogers use two general approaches in determining subject headings for local historical collections in the…

This 22-paper collection addresses a variety of issues related to representation and transfer of knowledge. Individual papers include an explanation of the usefulness of general scientific models versus case-specific approaches and a discussion of different empirical approaches to the general problem of knowledge representation for information…

In 1965 the Syracuse University School of Library Science held a symposium to explore the nature of the relationship between the structure and transmission of knowledge, on the one hand, and the array of bibliographic devices which have been developed to facilitate access to that knowledge, on the other. Papers presented discussed the need for a…

This report summarizes a collection of nine essays addressing the future of libraries that were an outgrowth of a study conducted by the Office of Library Programs to develop a research agenda. The study is described in the first of three sections of this report, and abstracts of the essays are presented in the second section. Areas of concern…

This collection of nine essays is an outgrowth of a study which was conducted by the Office of Library Programs to identify researchable issues that could help librarians fill a position of leadership in the information society. An introduction to the collection describes the study and includes a list of the 10 major issues identified by…

This study examines the reliability of article coverage in the American Theological Library Association's (ATLA) Religion Database CD-ROM of two emerging theological fields: lesbian theology and womanist theology. Indexing predictability and consistency of coverage is important for the access of needed documents. There is concern that women's…