> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind
> Sent: 20 June, 2006 17:49
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Subject
>
> At 4:58 PM -0400 6/20/06, Laura Akerman wrote:
> >3. Library of Congress subject headings are the only truly
> >comprehensive English language subject controlled
> vocabulary, but they
> >don't work well enough.
> >
> >What do we need? (leave how to get it for later) and what's
> out there
> >that could be a model? How could the ideal subject vocabulary work?
> >>
> Check out the 'word cloud'. Time will tell if it's actually
> useful to users. To me, it seems like a mess. But the basic
> idea is a good one---the problem is that LCSH (and our other
> vocabularies) don't provide vocabularies suitable to this
> kind of exploration. In the case of AquaBrowser, it's not
> just based on LCSH, it's based on a sort of random harvesting
> of any available words and an attempt at machine-processing
> into a useful relationship graph, which is what leads to a
> mess. But part of the reason it's not just based on LCSH is
> because LCSH alone wouldn't actually work for this either.
> What would it take to have a subject vocabulary which was
> amenable to this kind of 'word cloud' for allowing users to
> explore, navigate, and profile?
What if you didn't need to completely throw away LCSH, but
could achieve these results? Laura asked what is out there,
so I'll [2] throw FAST [1] into the discussion. FAST will be
able to take a LCSH constructed heading and break it into
facets. You could dynamically create the FAST headings, or
store them in the record, which would allow you to build
things like that. It's not panacea since FAST headings are
based on LCSH terminology, but it does offer a bridge to
easier application and use while allowing for facet browsing
or 'term clouds'.
Andy.
[1] <http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/fast/>
[2] Full disclosure: I don't work on the FAST project, but do
interface with the FAST team members during my activities
at OCLC.
Received on Tue Jun 20 2006 - 19:34:22 EDT