search terms and other confusionsAnne Welsh

Department of Information Studies

MEDIATED SEARCH

NOT *ALWAYS* A POSITIVE IMAGE

“Are you sure this thing understands apostrophes?”

WHAT THE LIBRARIAN SAWCONTROLLING THE [SEARCH] VOCABULARY

“I’m looking for information on types of weed”

“Are you a keen gardener?”

User interrogation for disambiguation

Argot / Homonyms

Synonyms

Synonyms

Catalogue rules, OK?

“Fuzzy” / Soft Terms

“What does she mean, it’s not on the Internet?”

The Internet is vast, with infinite relationships

SKOS attempts to map these

Who controls the web vocabulary?

LCSH (above): FAMILY VIOLENCE (neutral tone)

Feminist Library: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN (political statement)

Are we “victims” or “survivors” of violence?