From EFS4CMB@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU Wed Feb 14 15:50:05 1996
In a sense, this is a question about the value of precoordination.
For a complete discussion of the value of precoordination, see:
Pre-coordination or not? / by Elaine Svenonius. Paper delivered at
the IFLA Satellite Meeting in Lisbon, 1993.
It is very valuable to provide the user doing a topical subject
search with a break-down of his or her subject by form. That is the
function that the $v subdivision would allow an online catalog to
carry out. It allows online catalogs to create browsable displays
of precoordinated headings. Use of subdivisions allows the user to
browse through headings and make decisions based on format (as well
as period of coverage, geographic coverage, etc.)--factors that may
not have been specified on the initial search.
Consider the following display that can result from a user's search
on the term 'wills':
A number of user studies have noted that users of online public
access catalogs frequently encounter long displays and have trouble
scanning through them. (1) One of Nicholson Baker's complaints is
about the inability to scan through large retrievals quickly the way
one could in the card catalog. (2) Using form and other
subdivisions to break down large displays can facilitate browsing.
The above display also has the quality of suggestibility described
by Svenonius. That is, such a display can help users imagine how
to expand or reduce their retrievals, without their having to be
familiar with the indexing language ahead of time.
It is not uncommon for a form category to apply to only a part of
the work represented by a cataloging record. Consider the following
two examples: 1) a newsreel with a number of stories on it, one of
which includes aerial photographs of Death Valley and Mount Whitney;
and 2) a book which includes a bibliography of French incunabula.
EXAMPLE 1:
Hearst Metrotone news. {Vol. 2, no. 246}. United States :
{Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1931-03-07}
Version released in U.S. cities outside of Detroit.
Newsreel reconstructed from story fragments by UCLA newsreel
archivists based on available documentation.
Newsreel.
Cataloged from copy lacking head and tail logos; title from
intertitles.
Volume and issue number, distributor, and release date (date of
distribution to theater) from Hearst Corporation records.
Intertitles: Spain's internal struggle shown for first time.
Metrotone gets scenes of loyal troops in Madrid quelling
revolt threat. Marching under the flag as a pledge of
allegiance. Spain's man of the hour, Admiral Aznar, the new
premier -- Canadian ice plow rams choked river. Breaker Mikula
smashes into St. Lawrence jam, clearing channel for merchant
shipping -- Hoover at Capitol as Congress quits. President
signs more than sixty bills when the Seventy-first Session
adjourns. It's vacation time for Speaker Longworth of the
House, and "the boys" {crowd on Capitol steps sings Carry me
back to old Virginny} -- What Grandpa had to pick from. Paris
shows how flappers charmed the boys of fifty years ago in the
good old days -- Turf season on in England. British
steeplechase riders come from winter quarters to resume
hurdle jumping in meet at Plumpton -- Sometimes it pays to be
chesty. Samson comes to life in Germany and a lot of modern
Delilahs give him a tough time ..., cont.
Intertitles continue: ... Skim peril spots high and low in daring
flight. Northrup {sic} planes dip down into Death Valley and
soar o'er Mt. Whitney.
Subject(s): Book industries and trade--Law and
1.) Yee, Martha M. "System Design and Cataloging Meet the User: User
Interfaces to Online Public Access Catalogs," Journal of the
American Society for Information Science 42:2 (March, 1991), p. 93.
2.) Baker, Nicholson, "Discards," The New Yorker, Apr. 4, 1994, pp.
68, 81-83.
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 14:30:16 -0500
From: "Martha M. Yee"
Reply to: usmarc@loc.gov
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Why 655 is not a good replacement for $v
Wills.
Svenonius refers to the quality of precision provided by
precoordination; by that, she means that precoordination allows the
user to deselect irrelevant documents. Thus the user who is looking
for a handbook on how to write a will according to the laws of the
state of California can reject 'cases,'and 'forms,' as well as the
works on other irrelevant geographic areas.
Wills--California.
Wills--California--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Wills--Cases.
Wills--Forms.
Wills--History.
Wills--North Carolina.
Wills--Scotland.
Wills--United States.
Wills--United States--Bibliography.
Wills--United States--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Wills--United States--History.
Wills--United States--Popular works.
RIGHTS: Rights held by UCLA Film and Television Archive.
PRESERVATION HISTORY: Preserved at UCLA.
GENRE(S): 1. Newsreels. 2. Shorts. 3. Sports event coverage
and commentary.
SUBJECT(S):
1. Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964. 2. Curtis, Charles,
1860-1936. 3. Longworth, Nicholas, 1869-1931. 4. United
States. Congress. 5. Northrop Corporation. 6. Ice-breaking
operations--Saint Lawrence River. 7. Ice-breaking
operations--Canada. 8. Ice-breaking vessels. 9. Costume -
-History--19th century. 10. Fashion shows--France--Paris. 11.
Steeplechasing--England. 12. Muscle strength. 13.
Spain--History--Revolution, 1931. 14. Spain--Armed
Forces--Spain--Madrid. 15. Washington (D.C.) 16. Death Valley
(Calif. and Nev.)--Aerial photographs. 17. Whitney, Mount
(Calif.)--Aerial photographs. 18. Stunts and novelty acts.
19. UCLA preservation.
OTHER ENTR(IES):
1. Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964. 2. Curtis, Charles,
1860-1936. 3. Bland, James A. (James Allen), 1854-1911. Carry
me back to old Virginny. 4. Longworth, Nicholas, 1869-1931.
5. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 6. HNRv2n246. 7. ZVA300.
EXAMPLE 2:
Author: Armstrong, Elizabeth.
In both these examples, precoordination of the form category with
the topical heading to which it applies offers user service in the
form of specificity and contextuality, to use Svenonius's terms
again. It allows the user to specify a relationship between the
form category and the topic desired. It allows the user to see the
two aspects of his or her search in context, so that irrelevant
documents can be quickly rejected, and relevant ones quickly chosen.
If the form categories 'aerial photographs,' and 'bibliography' were
placed in 655 fields, the specific relationship between the form and
the topic would be lost, and the potential for false drops would
exist. For example, the user interested in aerial photographs of
Madrid, or of Washington, D.C. would be given the newsreel record,
even though it contains no such photographs, and the user interested
in a bibliography on the history of publishing law in France would
be given the book, even though it contains no such bibliography.
Title: Before copyright : the French book-privilege system
1498-1526 / Elizabeth Armstrong.
Published: Cambridge {England} ; New York : Cambridge
University Press, 1990.
Description: xvi, 317 p. ; 24 cm.
Bibliography: p. 296-299.
Summarizes applicable research findings.
Johnson, Debra Wilcox and Lynn Silipighi Connaway, "Use of Online
Catalogs: A Report of Results of Focus Group Interviews,"
(typescript, Feb. 1992), p. 8.
OPAC (NLS) users interviewed by Johnson and Connaway complained that
subject searching often retrieved a large number of records, and
asked for better display algorithms to allow scanning through the
retrieved records.