[Sigia-l] Re: Faceted Classification

[David R. Austen]

Hello, Christopher, all:

Why bother?

I am reminded now of my observations of the ERIC database, available
through Dialog back in the ancient days and used in our Masters
program.

In ERIC, if memory serves me, wrong spellings in record entries were
quite common and apparently even "accepted." One could see all the
different permutations and go with the most popular spelling when
making an entry. I suppose this "feature" was useful in that
"synonyms" (misspellings) were collected that usually pointed pretty
clearly to the descriptor.

Is this a fair appraisal of what happens in the case of your database?
Other similar experiences, folks? Thoughts?


Best regards,

David Austen

http://zillionbucks.com -- Web hosting for the creative industry

Friday, July 12, 2002, 1:44:39 AM, you wrote:

>> There still appears to be some control here, working from what 
>> librarians call an authority list. For example, note that there are 
>> 56 entries with the building name Angkor Wat (I *love* the fact that 
>> they tell you how many items are associated with each term). Someone 
>> took the care to ensure that alternate spellings of Angkor Wat were 
>> not allowed.

CFa> My guess is that all 56 entries for Angkor Wat were entered into the DB
CFa> on the same day by a single person. There are plenty of examples of
CFa> multiple spellings in the list, and several inexplicable examples where
CFa> there are two entries spelled identically. Most of the buildings in the
CFa> list have only one (1) entry. To require a librarian to check each new
CFa> entry for an existing alternate spelling from among thousands of other
CFa> terms sounds like a rather thankless job!

CFa> -Cf

CFa> [christopher eli fahey]
CFa> art: http://www.graphpaper.com
CFa> sci: http://www.askrom.com
CFa> biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com




CFa> ------------
CFa> When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.

CFa> *Plain text, please; NO Attachments

CFa> ASIST SIG IA website: http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGIA/index.html
CFa> _______________________________________________
CFa> Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
CFa> Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l



--