Matching LCSH and User Vocabulary in the Library Catalog

Abstract

Central to subject searchin is the match between user vocabula and the headings from Li % rary of Congress Sub-Headings&XH) used in a library catalog. This paper evaluates previous matching studies, proposes a detailed list of matching categbries, and tests LCSH In a study using these categories. Exact and artial match categories are defined for single LCSH and multipfe LCSH matches to user expressions. One no-match category IS included. Transaction logs from ORION, UCLA's online lnforrnation system, were used to collect user expressions for a comparison of LCSH and user language. Results show that single LCSH headings match user expressions exactly about 47% of the time; that single subject heading matches, including exact matches, comprise 74% of the total; that partial matches, to both sin le and multiple headin s, comprise about 21% of the total; an cf that no match occurs 5 % o of the time. 0 1989 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights resewed. 37 Downloaded by [Michigan State University] at 08:37 04 February 2015

What is used during cognitive processing in information retrieval and library searching? Eleven sources of search information

“…Much of the research on match between system terms and user terms has been done with subject terminology (Bates, 1977a(Bates, , 1977bCarlyle, 1989;Fidel, 1985;Harris, 1986;Markey, 1984;Solomon, 1993;Van Pulis & Ludy, 1988). A little work has also been done with how users search for authors and titles in online catalogs (Dickson, 1984).…”

Author-Assigned Keywords versus Library of Congress Subject Headings

“…This implication corroborates Carlyle's conclusion about the need for the maintenance of cross-references to reflect changing user language. 18 The large nonoverlap also could imply that some keywords may be spurious or not topical in nature. For example, one keyword that was used, "MD/PhD," does not describe the topic of the document, but rather the type of degree program in which the author was enrolled.…”

“…Carlyle conducted a study matching catalog users' search terms with LCSH in which 47 percent of the search terms matched exactly. 1 When including partial matches, word order variations, and spelling variations, the figure rose to 74 percent. Only 5 percent of users' search terms could not be matched at all.…”

Building a Digital Library from the Ground Up: An Examination of Emergent Information Resources in the Machine Learning Community

“…These subject titles and the relationships between them are not static, and are not fitted into an over-arching definition of the field. It has long been recognized that a mismatch frequently exists between the 'official' terminology used by classification systems or thesauri to describe a field, and the language used by the practitioners in the field (see, for example, [2]). One approach to providing a subject-related browsing structure that is tailored to a discipline's own description of itself is to use the terminology extant in a collection's document as the basis for browsing.…”