LIBR 247
Vocabulary Design
Fall 2004

mailing address:
Professor Judy Weedman
San Jose State University - SLIS
800 No. State College
P.O.Box 4150
Fullerton, California 92834-4150

Dr. Judy Weedman
E-mail
(714) 278-2295
fax: (714) 278-5841

office hours:
chatroom, telephone, f2f (PLS 55)
Wednesday 1:30-3:00
Thursday 1:30-3:00
and by appointment

GREENSHEET

Course description:

Principles and practices for the creation of subject vocabularies for the organization and retrieval of information-bearing objects.

This class is useful for individuals who need to design access systems where standard classification and subject heading systems such as Dewey, LCCS, LCSH, or Sears are not appropriate; special purpose collections, intranets, and e-commerce are three examples of settings where vocabulary design is a valuable professional skill.

Course objectives:

Upon completion, the student will…

• Understand principles of vocabulary creation and term assignment, and know the theory and practice which underlie them
• Understand similarities and differences in vocabulary control for both analog and digital formats
• Be able to create structurally correct controlled vocabularies based on user and client requirements
• Be able to assign vocabulary terms for optimal information retrieval, in accordance with relevant editorial policies
• Be able to evaluate vocabularies
• Understand the use of metadata in providing subject access to digital materials
• Be aware of current research and future directions in indexing

The course objectives support the following SLIS objectives:

• Teaching the major theories, important principles, and current practice in the areas of: information management … and …. the application of diverse technologies to information management
• Requiring students to evaluate and utilize relevant research studies from a variety of disciplines in their coursework.

Texts:

1. Lancaster, F. W. (2003). Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

Order directly from the publisher. Price is $57.50, plus $3.00 for shipping and handling. All orders must be prepaid. They will accept a check (payable to the University of Illinois) or credit card.

(217) 333-1359

GSLIS Publications Office http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/
University of Illinois , Urbana-Champaign puboff@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
501 E. Daniel Street (217) 244-7329 FAX

Champaign , IL 61820

2. Indexes: A Chapter from The Chicago Manual of Style, 15 th Ed. (1993). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Order through amazon.com or other online vendor. Costs $8.00.

3. ANSI/NISO Z39.19 - 1993 Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri. Download PDF files from: http://www.niso.org/standards/index.html

Recommended:

Baca, Murtha (Ed.) (2002). Art Image Access: Issues, Tools, Standards, Strategies. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute.

(If you’re at all interested in vocabularies for art – or for images more generally – this is a great overview.)

Bowker, Geoffrey C. and S. Leigh Starr (1999). Sorting Things Out; Classification & Its Consequences. MIT Press.

(The book is available from amazon.com for $13.97.) Not a practical how-to-do-it book, but a sociological look at how we categorize things and why it matters.

Note Regarding Email Attachments:

You may be required to send and receive email attachments of a moderately large size (1MB - 8MB). If your current email service provider places restrictions on the size of attachments that you can send or receive, then you will need to obtain an email account without such restrictions.

As an SLIS student, you may request an email account on the SLIS email server (Wahoo). If you encounter problems with sending or receiving large attachments through your current email account, it is recommended that you do so.

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if there is emergency medical information I should be aware of, or if you need special arrangement in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or contact me by e-mail or during office hours.

Grading:

The grade of B reflects high quality work commensurate with expectations for graduate students. The following grade scale will be used:

Top of Page