Enhancing social tagging with automated keywords from the Dewey Decimal Classification

Abstract

Acknowledgments:This work in part results from a project called EnTag which was funded by UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) under its Capital Programme, for a period of 12 months in 2007 and 2008. Many thanks to Intute who supplied an extract of their social science collection, and to Diane Vizine-Goetz, Andrew Houghton, Michael Panzer of OCLC who provided the Dewey Decimal Classification and their assistance during the project. Biographical Details:Koraljka Golub is a research officer at UKOLN, University of Bath. Her major areas of interest are knowledge organization and information retrieval. More specifically, her projects deal with knowledge organization systems in contexts of social tagging, terminology registries, automated subject classification and indexing as well as evaluation methodology thereof.Marianne Lykke is a professor at the Department of Communication and Psychology -University of Aalborg. Her areas of expertise include digital management, information seeking and information behaviour, and knowledge organization and information architecture. She is currently working with three major projects, one dealing with semantic components for facilitating access to domain-specific documents, another on evaluation of metadata and a third one on query modification and structuring. Douglas Tudhope is a professor at the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science, University of South Wales. His main research interests are in knowledge organization systems and services. He is interested in how semantically indexed hypermedia systems can assist interactive and automatic retrieval. Current work investigates the application of semantic technologies and linked data to archaeology and cultural heritage generally. Structured Abstract:Purpose To explore the potential of applying the Dewey Decimal Classification as an established knowledge organisation system for enhancing social tagging, with the ultimate purpose of improving subject indexing and information retrieval. Design/methodology/approach Over 11,000 Intute metadata records in politics were used. 28 politics students were each given 4 tasks, in which a total of 60 resources were tagged in two different configurations, one with uncontrolled social tags only and another with uncontrolled social tags as well as suggestions from a controlled vocabulary. The controlled vocabulary was Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) comprising also mappings from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Findings The results demonstrate the importance of controlled vocabulary suggestions for indexing and retrieval: to help produce ideas of which tags to use, to make it easier to find focus for the tagging, to ensure consistency and to increase the number of access points in retrieval. The value and usefulness of the suggestions proved to be dependent on the quality of the suggestions, both as to conceptual relevance to the user and as to appropriateness of the terminology. Originality/value No research has investigated the enhancement of social tagging w...

A knowledge‐based approach to Information Extraction for semantic interoperability in the archaeology domain

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Some Thoughts on Preserving Functions of Library Catalogs in Networked Environments

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