USF, Feb 3, 2009Reference resources1 Access to Reference Resources In a Digital Environment Michael...

USF, Feb 3, 2009 Reference resources 1

Access to Reference Resources

In a Digital Environment

Michael BucklandUniversity of California, BerkeleyElectronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

School of Information

SLIS, University of South Florida

Tampa, February 3, 2009


Some ideas about learning. . . .

1. Understanding requires knowing the context. “Knowledge is power” (Sir Francis Bacon) implies understanding relationships.

2. So libraries should support finding the context of anything! What? Where? When? Who? Whatever!

3. Best place to read is in a library among reference works.

4. The reference library has been largely forgotten in the move of library services into an online environment.

5. Using reference resources online should be as easy as Google and the Wikipedia to use and but also as reliable as a library reference collection.


Textwith a interesting details.Who was she?Where is that?What is this?What else was happening? Reader

Library resourcesEncyclopediasAtlases, place nameBiographical dictionariesBibliographiesLibrary catalogStatistical seriesetc., etc. . . . .

In a paper environment, reading inside a library is the best place to learn. It is well designed to explain the context!

How do we move this situation into an internet environment?


Present situation – 1

-- Definition: “For the purpose of the research agenda, digital reference is defined . . . as the use of human intermediaries to answer questions in a digital environment.”

Empowerment of librarians is good, but library science is really about designing services that empower library users, an even higher goal.

Library reference service in a digital environment, Library and Information Science Research 30, no 2 (2008): 81-85.http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/libref.pdf


Martin Schrettinger. 1772-1851 Forget the mind of God! (or “Nature”). Use an arbitrary systematic arrangement. New name: “Library science” 1808 -- 201 years ago.


Present situation – 2: Stage of technology change.

Adoption of new technology typically in two stages:

First – Stage 1 - use new technology to do the same thing better.

Second - Stage 2 - exploit the full capability of the new technology to do different better things.

The Internet Public Library reference department is a good example of Stage 1,

Time now for Stage 2! What would it look like?


Emanuel Goldberg, b. Moscow, 1881; son of Grigorii Goldberg; Univ. of Moscow, 1900-04; Ph.D w. Robert Luther, Leipzig Univ., 1906; Assistant, Adolf Miethe, TU Charlottenburg, 1906-07; Prof, Akad. f. graphische Künste, Leipzig, 1907-17; ICA, Zeiss Ikon, Dresden, 1917-1933; Kinamo cine camera, 1921; microdots, 1925; search engine, 1927; Contax 35 mm camera 1932; kidnapped by Nazi SA; refugee in Paris, 1933-37; Laboratory, Palestine, Israel, 1937; d. 1970.

WHO?

Click a name to search for an internet resource.



WHERE?



WHAT?


Any word, name, document, or event

Any resource:Audio, Images, Texts, Numeric data, Objects, Virtual reality, Webpages

Any catalog: Archives, Libraries, Museums, TV, Publishers

Connect it with its context – and other resources.

Facet Vocabulary Displays

WHAT Thesaurus Cross- e.g. LCSH references

WHERE Gazetteer Map

WHEN Period directory Timeline

WHO Biograph. dict. Personal e.g. Who’s Who relations

Context and relationships: Ireland and Irish Studies – Project diagram.


The reference library is open from

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The “9 to 5” problem

Students are writing papers at home on laptops from

9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.

What is wrong with this situation?

What can librarians do about it?


And other problems with the paper reference collection . . .

-- Designed for community, not for an individual.

-- Designed for many queries, not the current one.

-- Not volatile.

-- Guides but no index. One doesn’t really know where to look. Little green lights on shelves indicating which volumes mention this topic would be nice.

-- Multimedia in theory; bound volumes in practice.

-- Disconnect with work practices: Much error-prone note-talking and transcription.


Building the functionality of a reference collection.

1. Context finder: Search support from text to reference works.

2. Context builder: Make, retain notes and links to reference works.

3. Context provider: Make reference works better by adding two-way links, e.g. text has links to place name list AND place name list has links to texts.

Demos at http://metadata.berkeley.edu/demos/


Initial sketch for “Context Finding / Building” interface.

Save search path

Save link & notes as “stand-off” markup.

Save link & notes as embedded mark-up.

Insert / block text

Define facet

Ranked lists of suggested resources for each facet chosen

Display of search result


CORPUS

FRAGMENT CONTEXT

Context Finder: Ad hoc searches. Looking outwards, not inwards!

Reference works


Scanned text Named Entities


Cursor over a name highlights every mention of that name in the text.


Named entities are linked to specific resources or dynamic searches over relevant databases.




2. Context builder: Make, retain notes and links to reference works.

3. Context provider: Make reference works better by adding two-way links, e.g. text has links to place name list AND place name list has links to texts.


CORPUS

FRAGMENT CONTEXT

Context Builder: Query, source, result saved as markup in text; and in notes.

Reference work


Named entities not detected automatically can be added manually.


Initially, named entities are linked to keyword searches at the appropriate name authorities and metadata services. Here we see a number of possible candidates for “Henry V”.


-- Disconnect with work practices: Much error-prone note-talking and transcription.

The case of editing of historical papers . . .




2. Context builder: Making, retaining notes / links to reference works.

3. Context provider: Enriching reference works by adding reverse links, e.g. place name gazetteer mentions where a place is mentioned in texts.


CORPUS

FRAGMENT CONTEXT

Context Provider: Also reverse links from resource back to text. Now two-way!

Reference work


Facet Vocabulary Displays Reference GenreWHAT Topics Cross-references EncyclopediaWHERE Places Maps Atlas, place listWHEN Periods Timeline ChronologyWHO Persons Relationships Biogr.dictionary

Reference Genre Vocabulary Displays FacetEncyclopedia Topics Cross-references WHATAtlas, place list Places Maps WHEREChronology Time Timelines WHEN

Biogr. Dictionary Persons Relationships WHO

Paper-based reference collection: Codex determines structure and use.

Reversed in a digital environment: Metadata forms infrastructure.

Build a union index, so you know where too look! Little green lights!

http://metadata.berkeley.edu/demos/

Search interest

Search interest


Importance of inverting the relationship between the part and the whole:

-- Indexes are created by inversion -- Union indexes: Tell you which reference work mentions

your query, like the Science Citation Index. . . as in Google.

Use dynamic links to for real time searches the latest version of the best resources; and, for vocabulary:Search term recommender systems.


A report on work by several people: Aitao Chen, Fredric Gey, Ray Larson, Dan Melia, Barry Pateman, Vivien Petras, Ryan Shaw, and others.

Work supported by two U.S. federal government agencies: The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Three projects: - Support for the learner (2004-06) ecai.org/imls2004 - Biographical texts (2006-09) ecai.org/imls2006 - Irish Studies (2007-09) ecai.org/neh2007

Demos at http://metadata.berkeley.edu/demos/[email protected]

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