LIBR 247-01
LIBR 247-10
Vocabulary Design
Summer 2011 Greensheet

Dr. Ali Shiri
E-mail

Office phone number: 
(780)492-5315      
Home phone number: (780) 432-3284      
Office Hours: Via e-mail, chat, Elluminate, or telephone


Greensheet Links
Textbooks and Readings
Course Requirements
Resources
D2L Login and Tutorials
iSchool eBookstore
 

This course will be available on D2L on Wednesday, June 1. You will be enrolled into the site automatically. I will send more information about course access as we approach this date through MySJSU.

Course Description

The course is designed to explore and examine the principles and practice of indexing, abstracting, thesaurus construction, web-based application of thesauri and other types of knowledge organization systems and social organization of information.

Course prerequisite: LIBR 202

Course Objectives

  • To examine and apply the principles of indexing, abstracting and subject analysis.
  • To examine and apply the principles of thesaurus construction and use.
  • To examine thesaurus applications in new indexing environments such as subject gateways, portals and digital libraries
  • To examine the role of social organization of information

This course explores the theory and practice of four core areas of information work: indexing & abstracting; thesaurus construction; the application of thesauri on the Web and social organization of information. The focus for all four areas is the application of principles for effective information retrieval.

LIBR 247 supports the following SLIS Core Competencies:

  • design, query and evaluate information retrieval systems;
  • use the basic concepts and principles related to the creation, evaluation, selection, acquisition, preservation and organization of specific items or collections of information;
  • understand the system of standards and methods used to control and create information structures and apply basic principles involved in the organization and representation of knowledge.

Course Requirements

Course work will consist of written lectures, readings, online discussions, three major assignments, and a number of small exercises. In order to gain a quick overview of the assignments, exercises and discussions, please take a look at the “ Visual view of assignments, exercises and discussion forums” Under week 1. Though the class is designed to support a variety of learning styles, discussion, collaboration and sharing ideas is a key requirement.

Late Assignments
Late assignments will not be accepted without prior consent of the instructor and will incur a penalty.

Assignments:

  1. Online Discussion/Class Participation
    As this class is completely on-line and asynchronous, participation in the D2L discussions is essential for success in the course. Students will be expected to provide a thoughtful and reflective response to these topics. In addition to responding to each of the topics, students are also encouraged to engage in dialog with each other by responding to other student's responses to the topics.
  2. Introduction and short biography via D2L: Students will provide a brief introduction of themselves, including their career goals and their motivation for choosing the course. 
  3. Observations on image indexing: Students will carry out sample searches on content-based and concept-based image indexing digital image collections and will share their observations on the discussion forum. 
  4. Observation on abstract writing: Students will write an abstract for a journal article and will compare their abstract with the author-generated abstract and will share their observations on the discussion board.
  5. Indexing and abstracting: Students will create an indexing and abstracting record for a journal article using a web-based thesaurus.
  6. Thesaurus construction project: Students will create a small thesaurus for an LIS community using the facet analysis technique.
  7. Evaluation of Thesaurus-enhanced search systems: Students will compare and evaluate two operational thesaurus-enhanced search systems in terms of user interface and retrieval.

Weekly discussion postings (Assignments 1, 2, 3, 4) are due each Sunday by midnight.

Assignments 5, 6, 7 are due at 11:59 pm (pacific) on the due date.

Course Calendar

Week Date Topics Readings
1 June 8 Introduction to the course: Thesauri, indexing and abstracting, thesauri on the web, relevance

Indexing: controlled vs. free indexing languages
Cleveland & Cleveland

Chapters 1 – 3

Cleveland & Cleveland – Chapters 4 (p.35-40), 5 (p.48-55; 61-73 =examples) & 6
2 June 15 Indexing of imaginative work

Concept-based vs. content-based image indexing

Image indexing exercise

Share your observations on the discussion forum
Cleveland & Cleveland – Chapters 8, 11, 12, 15
3 June 22 Abstracting: types and categories of abstracts

Exercise: Write an informative abstract (share your observation on the discussion forum)
Cleveland & Cleveland – Chapters 5 (p.55-60; 74-90 = examples), 7, 17
4 June 29 Thesaurus construction

Facet analysis exercise
Cleveland & Cleveland – Chapters 4 (p.40-47; 91-96 = examples);

Aitchison et al. A-C (p.1-16); F2 (p.68-78); E (p.37-48
ASSIGNMENT 1 Due: Indexing and abstracting  
5 July 6 Thesaurus construction: compound terms and relationship types Aitchison et al. F - F1 (p.49-68)
6 July 13 Thesaurus construction: term selection

Term selection exercise: forum discussion

Thesaurus software exercise
Aitchison et al. D (p.17-36)

The W32 manual
7 July 20 Thesauri on the web

Thesauri on the web exercise
Shiri, Ali (2000) Thesauri on the Web: current developments  and trends. Online Information Review, Vol. 24, No 4. pp. 273 - 279.

Hudon, Michele. (2003) True and tested products: thesauri on the web. Indexer, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 115 -119
ASSIGNMENT 2 Due : Thesaurus construction project
8 July 27 Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) in new information environments

KOS systems exercise

KOS systems discussion
-Koch, Traugott (2000). Quality-controlled subject gateways: definitions, typologies,  empirical   overview. Online Information Review, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp.24-34.

-DESIRE information Gateway Handbook. (Section on keywords  and thesauri)

-Miller, Paul. Towards a typology for portals, Paul Miller. Ariadne 37, October 2003.

-Christine L. Borgman (1999). What are Digital Libraries? Competing Visions. Information Processing and Management, Vol 35, No 3,  pp. 227-243.
9 August 3 User-centred evaluation of thesauri: retrieval and interface

Thesaurus-based search exercise
Shiri, Ali Asghar; Revie, Crawford; Chowdhury, Gobinda. (2002) Thesaurus-Enhanced Search  Interfaces. Journal of Information Science. 28(2), pp.111 - 122.

Gantzmann, J. (1990) Criteria for the evaluation of thesaurus software. International Classification, 17(3/4), 148-154; with appendix, p. 155-157  Check-list for thesaurus software. (Section B parts: 3.1 ‘Display on the screen’ and  4.2 ‘Retrieval’)
10 August 10 Social organization of information:  tagging and bookmarking Guy, M., and Tonkin, E., Folksonomies - Tidying up tags? D-lib Magazine, January 2006. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january06/guy/01guy.html

Shiri, A. (2009) An Examination of Social Tagging Interface Features and Functionalities: An Analytical Comparison. Online Information Review, 33(5), 901 - 919.
ASSIGNMENT 3 Due: Evaluation of thesaurus-enhanced search systems

Course Grading

Assignment Weight Due date
Online discussion/class participation 11% Weekly
Introductions/Short Biography via D2L 2% June 8
Observations on image indexing 5% June 15
Observations on abstract writing 6% June 22
Indexing and abstracting 20% June 29
Thesaurus construction 30% July 20
Evaluation of a thesaurus-enhanced search system< 25% August 10
SOTES Evaluation completion 1% August 10
Total 100  

In addition to subject specific discussion forums, I have created a General Discussion Board for general questions regarding due dates, structure of assignments, and clarification of concepts. The General Discussion Board is a forum for discussion of concepts and issues of sessions for which there is no specific forum. Please post your general questions here so that all students may benefit. Feel free to contact me via email at ashiri@ualberta.ca.

Textbooks and Readings

Required Textbooks:

  • Aitchison, J., Gilchrist, A., & Bawden, D. (2000). Thesaurus construction and use: A practical manual (4th ed.). Routledge. Available through Amazon: 0851424465 arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain
  • Cleveland, Donald B., & Cleveland, Ana D. (2001). Introduction to Indexing and Abstracting. Libraries Unlimited. Available through Amazon: 1563086417. arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain

Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

97 to 100 A
94 to 96 A minus
91 to 93 B plus
88 to 90 B
85 to 87 B minus
82 to 84 C plus
79 to 81 C
76 to 78 C minus
73 to 75 D plus
70 to 72 D
67 to 69 D minus
Below 67 F

 

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

  • C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
  • B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work;
    For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation.  You must repeat the class the following semester. If -on the second attempt- you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  • A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

General Expectations, Rights and Responsibilities of the Student

As members of the academic community, students accept both the rights and responsibilities incumbent upon all members of the institution. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with SJSU's policies and practices pertaining to the procedures to follow if and when questions or concerns about a class arises. See University Policy S90-5 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S90-5.pdf. More detailed information on a variety of related topics is available in the SJSU catalog at http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/catalog/departments/LIS.html. In general, it is recommended that students begin by seeking clarification or discussing concerns with their instructor. If such conversation is not possible, or if it does not serve to address the issue, it is recommended that the student contact the Department Chair as a next step.

Dropping and Adding

Students are responsible for understanding the policies and procedures about add/drop, grade forgiveness, etc. Refer to the current semester's Catalog Policies section at http://info.sjsu.edu/static/catalog/policies.html. Add/drop deadlines can be found on the current academic year calendars document on the Academic Calendars webpage at http://www.sjsu.edu/provost/services/academic_calendars/. The Late Drop Policy is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/aars/policies/latedrops/policy/. Students should be aware of the current deadlines and penalties for dropping classes.

Information about the latest changes and news is available at the Advising Hub at http://www.sjsu.edu/advising/.

Consent for Recording of Class and Public Sharing of Instructor Material

University Policy S12-7, http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S12-7.pdf, requires students to obtain instructor's permission to record the course and the following items to be included in the syllabus:

  • "Common courtesy and professional behavior dictate that you notify someone when you are recording him/her. You must obtain the instructor's permission to make audio or video recordings in this class. Such permission allows the recordings to be used for your private, study purposes only. The recordings are the intellectual property of the instructor; you have not been given any rights to reproduce or distribute the material."
    • It is suggested that the syllabus include the instructor's process for granting permission, whether in writing or orally and whether for the whole semester or on a class by class basis.
    • In classes where active participation of students or guests may be on the recording, permission of those students or guests should be obtained as well.
  • "Course material developed by the instructor is the intellectual property of the instructor and cannot be shared publicly without his/her approval. You may not publicly share or upload instructor generated material for this course such as exam questions, lecture notes, or homework solutions without instructor consent."

Academic integrity

Your commitment, as a student, to learning is evidenced by your enrollment at San Jose State University. The University Academic Integrity Policy F15-7 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/F15-7.pdf requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The Student Conduct and Ethical Development website is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/studentconduct/.

Campus Policy in Compliance with the American Disabilities Act

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need to make special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 at http://www.sjsu.edu/president/docs/directives/PD_1997-03.pdf requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations must register with the Accessible Education Center (AEC) at http://www.sjsu.edu/aec to establish a record of their disability.

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