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Friday, October 30, 2015

Blog 9

Thesauri, controlled vocabularies, and metadata

1.    What is the purpose of metadata? What are the categories of metadata?

Metadata is a set of data that describes information about other data. Metadata is generally divided into two types – Structural metadata and descriptive metadata. The other category of metadata is Administrative metadata. The main purpose of the metadata is to help in the discovery of relevant information, more often classified as resource discovery.

Categories of metadata: -
1)   Structural metadata - describes the intellectual or physical elements of a digital object.
2)   Descriptive metadata - uses individual instances of application data or the data content.
3)   Administrative metadata - provides information necessary to allow a repository to manage objects, such as when, how and by whom a resource was created and how it can be accessed.

2.    What is a controlled vocabulary? How is a controlled vocabulary beneficial to a web site and/or organisation?
controlled vocabulary is an organized arrangement of words and phrases used to index content and/or to retrieve content through browsing or searching. It typically includes preferred and variant terms and has a defined scope or describes a specific domain.
Source: Click here

Benefits of controlled vocabulary: -
1)   Helps in building a conceptual schema about your website type and it’s “purpose”.
2)   Assists in designing a navigation system for the website.
3)   Assist in the creation of intelligent Content Management System.
4)   Helps in building user cantered design.

3.    List the four main types of controlled vocabularies
1)   Authority Files
2)   Synonym Rings
3)   Classification Schemes/Taxonomy
4)   Thesauri


4.    What is the purpose of a synonym ring? Give examples of terms that would be considered equivalent under a synonym ring. What might happen during a search if you didn’t use a synonym ring? (Give an example.)

In metadata a synonym ring, is a group of data elements that are considered semantically equivalent for the purposes of information retrieval.

Example –
Acronyms -  fb, Facebook; KMPH, BBC, British broadcasting company
Spelling ring variant – router, route

If the synonym rings are not used, the user might not get a chance to get better result. For example – If the user wants to see the news on router, and he just type router to get to the result about router news page.  There is a probability that he might end up searching for network router.



5.    What is the purpose of an authority file? Describe how an authority file can educate users during search.
 An authority file is a list of proffered terms or acceptable values. 

Authority files helps to educate user how he can achieve best result for his search query.
For example, if a user searches on the term Hurricanes, the SCIS see reference under this heading tells the user that any resources on hurricanes will be found under the heading Cyclones. If this reference is not in the catalogue, the user may believe that the library does not contain any resources on hurricanes. A see also reference under the same heading will tell the user that they may also find resources that may be of interest under the broader subject headings Disasters and Meteorology; or under the specific name of the cyclone, such as Cyclone Tracy, 1974 (http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/scis_authority_files_help.html)

6.    Create an authority file for abbreviations of the Australian states and territories (Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory).
State or Territories
Abbreviations
Queensland
QLD
New South Wales
NSW
South Australia
SA
Western Australia
WA
Northern Territory
NT
Australian Capital Territory
ACT

7.    Describe the purpose of a classification scheme. How does a web site benefit from a classification scheme?
Classification scheme of Taxonomy represents a hierarchical arrangement of preferred terms. Website benefits from a classification scheme in the following ways: -
1)   Helps user to navigate to certain content without the need of searching.
2)   Website can organise its key services on their webpages with the help classification scheme.
3)   Helps in building a meaningful organisation of links based on subject/type/service/contents.

8.    Create a classification scheme for several major dog breeds based on whether the dog is toy, small, medium, large, or giant.
Dog
§  Toy
§  Chihuahua
o   Chinese Crested Dog
o   Maltese
o   Miniature Pinscher
o   Pekingese
o   Pomeranian
o   Poodle (Toy)
o   Pug
§  Small
o   Australian Terrier
o   Bison Frise
o   Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
o   Dachshund (miniature)
§  Medium
o   Afghan Hound
o   Australian Shepherd
o   Bulldog
o   Corgi
§  Large
o   Alaskan Malamute
o   Bloodhound
o   Bullmastiff
o   Dalmation
§  Giant
o   Irish Wolfhound
o   Great Dane
o   Newfoundland


11. What topics would the following codes retrieve under Dewey decimal classification:
 a. 025.524 – Information and digital literacy
 b. 787.87092 – Guitarists
 c. 641.623 – Beer Brewing
 d. 634.772 -Bananas
 e. 522.29 – Astronomy techniques and tools – space telescopes

16. What is the purpose of thesauri? How is a thesaurus beneficial to searching on a web site?
A thesaurus is a book of synonyms, related words and antonyms for a given word. Unlike a dictionary, it doesn’t state meaning or root. Online thesauri are an online database that is integrated with the user interface of a web site with the goal of managing synonyms when users search keywords, helping to define a controlled vocabulary for useful identification of keyword identification for searching.

19. Consider the preferred term “car”. List a variant term(s), broader term, narrower term, and related term(s).

Preferred  = car
Broader = Vehicle, Transport
Variant= motor car, automobile
Narrower = SUV, sedan, 4WD, hatchback, wagon, coupe, convertible, sports, luxury
Related = truck, rental, taxi, limousine, insurance, window tinting, wheels

20. Consider the preferred term “sword”. List a variant term(s), broader term, narrower term, and related term(s).


Preferred  = sword
Broader = weapon, blade, cutter
Variant= side arm, long knife
Narrower = foil, cutlass
Related = dagger, pirate, war, samurai, king



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