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Details for article 136 of 170 found articles
| Title: |
Subject Indexing in the New Ethnographic Bibliography of North America |
| Author: |
Martin, M. Marlene |
| Appeared in: |
Behavioral & social sciences librarian |
| Paging: | Volume 11 (1992) nr. 1 pages 13-26 |
| Year: |
1992-03-16 |
| Contents: |
This paper is concerned with practical and theoretical problems I encountered in creating the Subject Thesaurus for the supplement to the fourth edition of the Ethnographic Bibliography of North America1 and for the forthcoming fifth edition of the bibliography. There are several issues involved. The key practical problem is that the bibliography will appear in two formats - print and CD-ROM. Each of these formats requires a different kind of searching and thus different kinds of indexes. The use of printed indexes requires an index with terms that uniquely identify things while computer searching with software that permits the use of Boolean operators in the search strategy is better served by an index with terms representing classes that can be used alone or in combination. A more theoretical issue involves the question of indexing using natural-language versus index-language terms. This latter issue is related to that of the relative merits of searching in a free=text mode versus searching with the aid of a controlled vocabulary. I bring these matters to the attention of librarians for two reasons. First, the effective use of the Subject Index of the bibliography will be directly related to understanding the nature of the index and the issues and problems encountered in its construction. Second, it is quite interesting that very practical problems reflecting "classic" theoretical issues surfaced almost immediately in this project. In other words, my experience demonstrates that theory is not dead but is very relevant to everyday practical problems. The discussion that follows is divided into three parts. First I will describe the Ethnographic Bibliography of North America. Next I will discuss the specific theoretical issues regarding indexing that I encountered. Finally, I will discuss the practical consequences of the theoretical considerations. |
| Publisher: |
Routledge |
| Source file: |
Elektronische Wetenschappelijke Tijdschriften |
Details for article 136 of 170 found articles
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