Richard P. Smiraglia

Derivative bibliographic relationships: the work relationship in a global bibliographic database

To contribute to the development of a sophisticated control of bibliographic works research must build on the growing understanding of the nature of the work and the constitution of bibliographic families. The present study was designed to address the following in the context of a global bibliographic database: the OCLC Online Computer Library Centers WorldCat: the proportion of works that are members of bibliographic families; the size of each family; bibliographic characteristics that can be associated with the existence or extent of derivative bibliographic relationships; the frequency with which each type of relationship appears; and the complexity of bibliographic families. A sample of bibliographic families was constructed. Results indicate that a core of works of similar character constitute the bibliographic population of American academic and research libraries (OCLC members). It seems that the canon of derivative works is greater in the academic sphere than in the bibliographic universe represented by OCLC at large. The size of a bibliographic family seems to be related to its popularity or its canonicity. Discipline, form, and genre all fail to demonstrate any influence on derivation of works. Further study of specific segments of the bibliographic universe, for instance the literature of particular disciplines, is clearly called for. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the development of a sophisticated control of bibliographic works and families. In particular, this research is designed to build on our growing understanding of the nature of the work and the constitution of bibliographic families.

Nodes and arcs: concept map, semiotics, and knowledge organization

Purpose – The purpose of the research reported here is to improve comprehension of the socially‐negotiated identity of concepts in the domain of knowledge organization. Because knowledge organization as a domain has as its focus the order of concepts, both from a theoretical perspective and from an applied perspective, it is important to understand how the domain itself understands the meaning of a concept.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an empirical demonstration of how the domain itself understands the meaning of a concept. The paper employs content analysis to demonstrate the ways in which concepts are portrayed in KO concept maps as signs, and they are subjected to evaluative semiotic analysis as a way to understand their meaning. The frame was the entire population of formal proceedings in knowledge organization – all proceedings of the International Society for Knowledge Organizations international conferences (1990‐2010) and those of the annual classification workshops of the Spec...

Toward the bibliographic control of works: derivative bibliographic relationships in an online union catalog

This research is designed to build on our understanding of the nature of the work and the breadth of the bibliographic family. The specific objectives of this research are to confirm Smiraglias observations about the frequency and extent of the derivative relationship, to learn whether bibliographic families conform in reality to Leazers conceptual model, and to learn whether the data required for control of works using our conceptual model are available. It appears from this cursory examination of the data, that although there are fewer large bibliographic families than expected, the characteristics of bibliographic families are as Smiraglia predicted. Leazers proposed model for the control of bibliographic works seems to be accurate. Qualitative analysis of the most complex bibliographic families will lead directly to the development of a dictionary of works, which can then be tested as a searching implement for the Online Union Catalog

Further Reflections on the Nature of 'A Work': An Introduction

SUMMARY The purpose of this volume is to extend our understanding of the work entity and its role in information retrieval. Basic definitions are reviewed to provide a summary of current thought about works, their role in the catalog, and the potential for better accommodating them in future information retrieval environments. A discussion of entities for information retrieval and works as entities follows. Research in knowledge organization is summarized, indicating ways in which ontology, epistemology, and semiotics have lately been used as looking glasses through which to view the social informational roles of works.

The Elements of Knowledge Organization

The Elements of Knowledge Organization is a unique and original work introducing the fundamental concepts related to the field of Knowledge Organization (KO). There is no other book like it currently available. The author begins the book with a comprehensive discussion of knowledge and its associated theories. He then presents a thorough discussion of the philosophical underpinnings of knowledge organization. The author walks the reader through the Knowledge Organization domain expanding the core topics of ontologies, taxonomies, classification, metadata, thesauri and domain analysis. The author also presents the compelling challenges associated with the organization of knowledge. This is the first book focused on the concepts and theories associated with KO domain. Prior to this book, individuals wishing to study Knowledge Organization in its broadest sense would generally collocate their own resources, navigating the various methods and models and perhaps inadvertently excluding relevant materials. This text cohesively links key and related KO material and provides a deeper understanding of the domain in its broadest sense and with enough detail to truly investigate its many facets. This book will be useful to both graduate and undergraduate students in the computer science and information science domains both as a text and as a reference book. It will also be valuable to researchers and practitioners in the industry who are working on website development, database administration, data mining, data warehousing and data for search engines. The book is also beneficial to anyone interested in the concepts and theories associated with the organization of knowledge. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia is a world-renowned author who is well published in the Knowledge Organization domain. Dr. Smiraglia is editor-in-chief of the journal Knowledge Organization, published by Ergon-Verlag of Wrzburg. He is a professor and member of the Information Organization Research Group at the School of Information Studies at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Classifications and concepts: towards an elementary theory of knowledge interaction

Purpose – This paper seeks to outline the central role of concepts in the knowledge universe, and the intertwining roles of works, instantiations, and documents. In particular the authors are interested in ontological and epistemological aspects of concepts and in the question to which extent there is a need for natural languages to link concepts to create meaningful patterns.Design/methodology/approach – The authors describe the quest for the smallest elements of knowledge from a historical perspective. They focus on the metaphor of the universe of knowledge and its impact on classification and retrieval of concepts. They outline the major components of an elementary theory of knowledge interaction.Findings – The paper outlines the major components of an elementary theory of knowledge interaction that is based on the structure of knowledge rather than on the content of documents, in which semantics becomes not a matter of synonymous concepts, but rather of coordinating knowledge structures. The evidence ...

Content Metadata–An Analysis of Etruscan Artifacts in a Museum of Archeology

SUMMARY Metadata schemes target resources as information-packages, without attention to the distinction between content and carrier. Most schema are derived without empirical understanding of the concepts that need to be represented, the ways in which terms representing the central concepts might best be derived, and how metadata descriptions will be used for retrieval. Research is required to resolve this dilemma, and much research will be required if the plethora of schemes that already exist are to be made efficacious for resource description and retrieval. A preliminary study was designed to see whether the bibliographic concept of “the work” could be of any relevance among artifacts held by a museum. The “works metaphor” is extended from the bibliographic to the artifactual domain by altering the terms of the definition slightly, thus: instantiation is understood as content genealogy. Case studies of Etruscan artifacts from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology are used to demonstrate the inherence of the work in non-documentary artifacts.

Bridget's Revelations, William of Ockham's Tractatus, and Doctrine and Covenants: Qualitative Analysis and Epistemological Perspectives on Theological Works

SUMMARY Random samples of works were drawn from the catalogs of the Bobst Library, New York University, and the Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary, New York. Results indicated: (1) derivative bibliographic relationships existed for somewhere between one-half and two-thirds of theological works; (2) there was a positive correlation between the age of the progenitor work and the extent of derivation; and (3) forms and genres were useful in a limited way for predicting the incidence of derivative relationships in theological literature. Qualitative analysis reveals the important aspects of the genres “revelation” and “scripture” among theological works.

Online Cataloging Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee School of Information Studies was an early adopter of teaching Masters of Library Science courses online, including cataloging courses. In this article we discuss features of our curriculum, including translating visual presentations for teaching cataloging in a physical classroom into the virtual environment; incorporating cultural diversity by consciously selecting a wider range of topics in cataloging examples for online classes for online students who are from all over the United States and sometimes the world; the curatorial trichotomy of resource description, cataloging, and collection management; and continuing education for working professionals.

Rethinking What We Catalog: Documents as Cultural Artifacts

ABSTRACT Cataloging is at its most interesting when it is comprehended as part of a larger, meaningful, objective. Resource description is a complex task; but the essence of librarianship is curatorship of a collection, and that sense of curatorial responsibility is one of the things that makes resource description into cataloging-that is, professional responsibility is the difference between the task of transcription and the satisfaction of professional decisions well-made. Part of the essential difference is comprehension of the cultural milieu from which specific resources arise, and the modes of scholarship that might be used to nudge them to reveal their secrets for the advancement of knowledge. In this paper I describe a course designed to lend excitement and professional judgment to the education of future catalogers and collection managers by conveying the notion that all documents are, in fact, cultural artifacts. Part of a knowledge-sensitive curriculum for knowledge organization, the purpose of this course is to go beyond the concept of documents as mere packets of information to demonstrate that each is a product of its time and circumstances. Bibliographic skill leads to greater comfort with the intellectual and cultural forces that impel the creation of documents. Students become comfortable with the curatorial side of cataloging-the placement of each document in its cultural milieu as the goal of resource description, rather than the act of description itself.