I have always thought users of libraries were pretty smart, smart enough to
be able to tell us whether they were doing a search for a known work or a
search for works on a particular subject, thus enabling us to provide them
with more precise searching. However, if most of you violently disagree
(especially those of you who are fans of Google's single search box),
perhaps a compromise could be reached by reviving what used to be called the
"dictionary catalog," that is an A to Z listing of all headings (authors,
works and subjects). In other words, if we could combine all browse (i.e.,
headings) indexes into one (and include TITLES AND WORK HEADINGS, which have
been left out in most systems), we could offer a keyword in heading search
of that dictionary browse file in a single search box as the default
beginning search (with a keyword in record search with faceted browse a la
Endeca offered as a back-up if the user indicates dissatisfaction with the
results of the initial search). The results of the dictionary browse would
be a list of headings and see references labelled as to type, e.g.:
(personal creator) [used for 100 (bib.), 700 (bib.), 400 (auth.)]
(corporate/institutional creator) [used for 110 (bib.), 710 (bib.), 410
(auth.)]
(conference proceedings) [used for 111 (bib.), 711 (bib.), 411 (auth.)]
(person as topic) [used for 600]
(corporation/institution as topic) [used for 610]
(conference or event as topic) [used for 611]
(work) [used for 1XX/245 (bib.), 1XX/240 (bib.), 130 (bib. and authority),
730 02 (bib.), 430 (auth.), 4xx/$t subfield (auth.)]
(title) [used for 24X (bib.), 740 (bib.)]
(series title) [used for 440 (bib.), 830 (bib.), 130 series authority
records]
(topic) [used for 650/651 (bib.), 150/151 (auth.), 450/451 (auth.)]
(genre/form) [used for 655 (bib.), 155 (auth.), 455 (auth.)]
These labels could begin the process of educating users about our
categories, so that they could conceivably use them in more complex boolean
searching. The results screen should also offer a prominent hot link to be
used "if these results are not yet satisfactory" or some such language
(which, as stated above, would re-do the search as a keyword in record
search with facetted browsing display a la Endeca).
When any given heading is chosen from the dictionary browse, the user should
be offered hot links to:
(under personal creators), other bibliographic identities
(under corporate/institutional creators), earlier and later names
(under works), related works (730 _0, 7XX 1_/$t subfield)
(under topics), broader, narrower and related terms
(under genre/form), broader, narrower and related genre/forms
What do you think?
Martha
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Martha M. Yee
Cataloging Supervisor
UCLA Film & Television Archive
1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90038-2616
323-462-4921 x27
323-469-9055 (fax)
myee_at_ucla.edu (Email)
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"The good ended happily and the bad ended unhappily. That is what fiction
means"--Miss Prism in The importance of being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
Received on Tue Jul 31 2007 - 09:26:28 EDT