Transcript Metadata & Controlled Vocabularies: What Are They and What

Guidelines and Principles for
Developing Search and Browse
Vocabularies
May 31, 2003
Rice University
Houston, TX
Amy J. Warner, PhD
[email protected]
Epicurious.com
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Navigation/Taxonomy
Vehicle Brands
Cars
MR2Spider
Celica
Celica Brochure
Matrix
Avalon
Camry Solarus
Camry
Camry Brochure
Prius
Corolla
ECHO
SUVs/Vans
Land Cruiser
Sequoia
` 4 Runner
Sienna
Highlander
RAV4
Trucks
Tundra
Tacoma
Vehicle Parts
Vehicle Accessories
Carriers
Bicycle Carriers
Ski Carriers
Roof Racks
Splash Guards
Security Systems
Tires
˚
˚
Engines & Transmissions
˚
˚
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Synonym Rings
Cholesterol
Blood Cholesterol
Serum Cholesterol
Good Cholesterol
Bad Cholesterol
LDL
.
.
.
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Medline
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MeSH & UMLS
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Controlled Vocabulary Defined
 A subset of natural language.
 A list of preferred and (sometimes)variant terms.
 With semantic relationships (hierarchical and associative)
(sometimes) defined.
 Used to tag document attributes (describe facets).
–
–
–
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Topic / Subtopic
Audience
Language
Form
 Or can be used to create labeling scheme for navigation.
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Cornerstones of Vocabulary Control
 Use unambiguous labels/search terms.
 Make distinctions among labels/search terms
clear.
 Make choices about wording and specificity of
labels/search terms based on user testing and on
size of collection.
 Use other semantic relationships (hierarchical,
associative) if necessary to organize large lists of
labels/search terms.
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Continuum of Vocabulary Control
Less
Synonym
Control
•USE/Used for
relationship
Vehicle crashes
USE Vehicle collisions
Vehicle collisions
UF Vehicle crashes
•Synonym Rings
Vehicle collisions
Vehicle crashes
Crashes
Collisions
More
Hierarchical
Relationships
•Broader/Narrower
Terms
Vehicle collisions
NT Truck collisions
Truck collisions
BT Vehicle collisions
•Browse Categories
Associative
Relationships
•Part/Whole
•Cause/Effect
•etc.
Vehicle parts
RT Vehicles
Vehicles RT
Vehicle parts
Vehicle safety
Truck safety
Truck collisions
Vehicle safety
•Site Index
•Taxonomies
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Steps in Controlled Vocabulary Construction
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Group terms by subject (facet analysis)
Link synonyms and variants.
Synonym Rings
Vehicle collisions
Vehicle crashes
Crashes
Collisions

Identify broader and narrower terms.
Taxonomies / Hierarchies

Identify related terms.
Thesauri
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Purposes of Standard
 Base choices on ‘best practice’.
 Base choices on known principles.
 Foster interoperability.
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Current NISO Thesaurus Standard
 Guidelines for the construction, format, and
management of monolingual thesauri: Z39.191993.
 Not a technical standard, but a set of guidelines.
 Emphasizes search thesauri.
 Emphasizes postcoordinate retrieval.
 Used mainly for abstracting and indexing
services.
 Does not put the standard in context.
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Why Revise
 Not revised since 1993.
 Number of downloads high, reflecting interest.
 Does not take the web environment into account.
– Navigation schemes are controlled vocabularies too.
– Is out of date in terms of computing technology in general:
• Software for managing thesauri has advanced.
• Software for leveraging thesauri though an interface has
advanced.
 Currently little attention paid to user testing.
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Term forms
 Currently
– Emphasizes rigid rules for grammatical form.
– Emphasizes short phrases as terms.
 Suggested revision
– Loosen rules on grammatical form.
– Allow for longer, more complex phrases.
 Rationale
– Software can perform automatic stemming.
– Navigation schemes are more precoordinate.
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Semantic Relationships
 Current standard
– Only accounts for explicit equivalence relationships.
– Hierarchical relationship only allowed for genus-species
relationship, with a few exceptions.
– Associative relationship only allowed across categories.
 Proposed revision
– Provide guidelines for choosing unambiguous labels.
– Provide guidelines for loose, browse categories.
 Rationale
– Labeling schemes and pick lists often do not account for
explicit synonymy relationships.
– Hierarchical navigation schemes need to be less rigid.
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Browse Categories
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Usability Testing
 Current standard
– Discusses users but does not include guidelines for testing
with users.
 Proposed revision
– Provide guidelines for open card sort testing of high level
categories.
– Provide guidelines for closed card sorting of term groups
under high level categories.
 Rationale
– User testing important consideration for choose terms and
term relationships.
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Display
 Current standard
– Emphasizes print copies of thesauri.
– Screen display section oriented toward display of
print copy.
 Proposed revision
– Oriented more toward displays of vocabularies
that only exist in digital format.
 Rationale
– Most web vocabularies do not have print
counterparts.
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Interoperability
 Current standard
– Does not address issues associated with
interoperability
 Proposed revision
– Will address major issues and problems
associated with interoperability, including multiple
languages
 Rationale
– Being able to share information within and among
organizations
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Construction and Maintenance
 Current standard
– Emphasizes maintenance problems in print vocabularies.
– Discusses software that manages stand-alone vocabularies.
 Proposed revision
– Advance standards for changing, adding, deleting terms
automatically.
– Provide guidance for software that is connected to
information retrieval systems.
 Rationale
– Software has advanced significantly.
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Process for Revising Standard
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Appoint editor.
Appoint advisory group.
Draft revision.
Discuss drafts with advisory group.
Vote on final draft by NISO board.
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Editor & Advisory Group
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Amy Warner, lexonomy.com
Vivian Bliss, Microsoft
Carol Brent, ProQuest
John Dickert, U.S. DoD
Lynn El-Hoshy, Library of Congress
Emily Fayen, SDC liaison
Patricia Harpring, Getty
Stephen Hearn, American Library Association
Sabine Kuhn, American Chemical Society/Chemical Abstracts
Pat Kuhr, H.W. Wilson
Diane McKerlie, Design Strategy
Peter Morville, Semantic Studios
Stuart Nelson, National Library of Medicine
Diane Vizine-Goetz, OCLC
Marcia Lei Zeng, Special Libraries Association
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Progress to Date
 Agreement on scope of revision.
 Agreement that guidelines should be placed in context.
 Agreement that guidelines should be educational as well
as prescribing best practice.
 Agreement that guidelines should be forward looking in
terms of new technologies.
 Agreement to write guidelines for elements and features
that all vocabularies have in common, then consider their
differences.
 Survey conducted to determine use of standard, other
standards, software.
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Other Players
 Communication with editor of British Standard.
 Communication and work with W3C to address
issues of implementation of controlled
vocabularies.
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Relationship with Semantic Web and OWL
 Semantic Web is an ontological framework.
 Both terms in the ontology and the relationships between
them are standardized using OWL (Web Ontology
Language).
 Both the terms and the relationships are ‘deep’
semantically.
 This is a structure into which ‘shallower’ terms provided by
using Z39.19 could be inserted.
 This would enhance interoperability because although we
would not have complete agreement on vocabularies, we
would have agreement on an effective structure for
exchanging them.
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Contact Me
Amy J. Warner
[email protected]
www.lexonomy.com
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