Nov 15, 2005Ohio State University Libraries1 What, Where, When, and Who: A Renaissance for the Reference Collection Michael Buckland School of Information

Nov 15, 2005 Ohio State University Libraries 1

What, Where, When, and Who:

A Renaissance for the Reference Collection

Michael BucklandSchool of Information Management & Systemsand Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative,University of California, Berkeley Ohio State University Libraries, November 15, 2005


In a paper library the reference collection is arranged in convenient categories and for making notes on . . .What, When, Where, Who, Why, and Howusing specialist genres of reference works:• General and subject areas: Dictionaries and encyclopedias• Geography section: Atlases and gazetteers• History section: Chronologies and time-lines• Biography section: Who’s whos, biographical dictionaries• etc. This has become more difficult in a digital environment.


WHAT? Searching by topic, e.g. Dewey, LCSH, any subject index, or category scheme.

Two kinds of mapping in every search:

• Documents are assigned to topic categories, e.g. Dewey

• Queries have to map to topic categories, e.g. Dewey’s Relativ Index from ordinary words/phrases to Decimal Classification numbers.

Also mapping between topic systems, e.g. US Patent classification and International Patent Classification.


Text

Numeric datasets

It is difficult to move between different media forms.


Text THESAURUS

Maps GAZETTEER Captions Numeric datasets

Different media can be linked indirectly via metadata, but sometimes (e.g. for socio-economic numeric data series) you also need to specify WHERE.


WHERE. Geo-temporal search interface. Place names found in documents. Gazetteer provided lat. & long. Places displayed on map.

Timebar


Zoom on map. Click on place for a list of records. Click on record to display text.


WHERE Place names are problematic:

- Variant forms: St. Petersburg, Санкт Петербург, Saint-Pétersbourg, . . .

- Multiple names: Cluj, in Romania / Roumania / Rumania, is also called Klausenburg and Kolozsvar.

- Names changes: Bombay Mumbai.

- Homographs:Vienna, VA, and Vienna, Austria; 50 Springfields.

- Anachronisms: No Germany before 1870

- Vague, e.g. Midwest, Silicon Valley

- Unstable boundaries: 19th century Poland; Balkans; USSR.

Use a gazetteer!


A catalog record: Isle of Man Tramways. ISBN 0715347403008 700812 1970 enkabh, b,fe 001 0 eng Country of publication code for England043 a e-uik– Geographic Area Code. The cataloger has erroneously used the “Country Code” used in field 008, instead of the Geographic Area Code prescribed for 043. Should be e-uk-ui for “Europe. Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies”.050 0 a TF764.M27 b P4 1970 Geographic code embedded in Library of Congress Classification number 082 0 a 388.4/6/094289 Geographic code embedded in Dewey Decimal Classification number 100 1 a Pearson, Frederick Keith. Author245 10 a Isle of Man tramways, c by F. K. Pearson;… Place name used adjectivally in title.260 a Newton Abbot : b David & Charles, c 1970. Place of publication, not in the Isle of Man.500 a Imprint covered by label: A. M. Kelley, New York. Note that Place of publication obscured.6102 0 a Manx Electric Railway Company. Adjective for Isle of Man used in corporate name used as subject heading.650 0 a Street-railroads z Man, Isle of. Geographic subdivision using inverted form of name. The island known as Man is represented six different ways, three searchable.


Catalogs and gazetteers should talk to each other!

Geographic sort / display of catalog search result.

Catalog search

Gazetteer search


Ask the gazetteer where Urbana is?


Text THESAURUS


Proper place name control requires a gazetteer -- and latitude and longitude allow points on maps.


WHEN. Search by time is also weakly supported.

Calendars are the standard for time.

But people use the names of events to refer to time periods.

Named time periods resemble place names in being:

• Unstable: European War, Great War, First World War.

•Multiple: Second World War, Great Patriotic War.

•Ambiguous: “Civil war” in different centuries in England, USA, Spain.

• Places have temporal aspects & periods have geographical aspects: When the Stone Age was, varies by region.


Similarity between place names and period names

So a similar solution: A gazetteer-like Time Period Directory.

Gazetteer:

Place name – Type – Spatial markers (Lat & long) -- When

Time Period Directory

Period name – Type – Time markers (Calendar) – Where

Note the symmetry.

Note the connections between Where and When.

A directory of 2,000 named time periods derived from LCSH Chronological subdivisions is at ecai.org/imls2004


Web Interface - Access by country / US state / world city

Named periods used in scholarly discourse.


Web Interface - Access by map


Web Interface - Access by timeline

Link initiates search of theLibrary of Congress catalogfor all records relating to thistime period.


WHEN and WHAT. These named time periods are derived from Library of Congress catalog subject headings and so can be used for catalog searching which finds books on topics important for that time period.


Text THESAURUS


TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY Timeline Chronology

Genres and INFRASTRUCTURE


WHEN, WHERE and WHO. Catalog records found from a time period search commonly include names of persons important at that time. Their names can be forwarded to, e.g., biographies in the Wikipedia encyclopedia.


Place and time are broadly important across numerous tools and genres including, e.g. Language atlases, Library catalogs,Biographical dictionaries, Bibliographies, Archival finding aids, Museum records, etc., etc.

Biographical dictionaries are heavy on place and time: Emanuel Goldberg, Born Moscow 1881. PhD under Wilhelm Ostwald, Univ. of Leipzig, 1906. Director, Zeiss Ikon, Dresden, 1926-33. Moved to Palestine 1937. Died Tel Aviv, 1970.

Life as a series of episodes involving Activity (WHAT), WHERE, WHEN, and WHO else.


BIOG. DICT. Text THESAURUS


TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY Timeline Chronology


BIOG. DICT. 2 BIOG. DICT. THESAURUS 3

Text 2 THESAURUS 2Text THESAURUS

Maps GAZETTEER Captions Numeric GAZETTEER 2 etc datasets GAZETTEER 3

TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY Time line TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY 2 Chronology TIME PERIOD DIRECTORY 3


Through - standards - good practice - interoperabilityan “intermediate infrastructure” like a traditional reference collection could be built and shared.

Thank-you!

ecai.org/imls2004 [email protected] done jointly with Fredric Gey, Ray Larson, and others.

Acknowledgments: Institute of Museum & Library Services, National Science Foundation, DARPA, Academia Sinica (Taiwan), Alexandria Digital Library project, and others.