School of Information Management & Systems. Spring 2001.
245   Organization of Information in Collections.   M. Buckland.

Assignment 13: Entry Vocabulary Indexes. Due April 23.
The purpose is to illustrate "entry vocabulary indexes" (aka Relative indexes) that lead from searchers' ordinary language ("query vocabulary") to the headings used in an information system ("entry vocabulary") and also see metadata values displayed in context. Use Netscape and a Berkeley IP address. Warning: Site revision may interfere with results.

1. Read the Metadata project home page www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/metadata/ and let the graphic top left cycle through its routine. Click to the Prototypes page at www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/metadata/proto.html. Scroll down and click on LCC which puts you into an entry vocabulary index embedded in CHESHIRE system which is an online catalog for Berkeley's Science Libraries. Set language to All languages (English), enter Alien Life Forms in Search Text box and click on Search. What LC Classification number and what LC Subject Headings are recommended?

3. Go back to the Prototypes page, scroll down to Patents, ensure that the choices are Natural Language and U.S., then click on GO. Enter peanut butter as a search request and observe the result. Click on the lowest little circle of the first ranked result, where it says "In butter form (426/633.00)"
Then above that entry select Search U.S. Patents Database with a selected code and submit selection to go find patents. The Berkeley prototype forwards your query to the US Patent & Trademark Office. You should get a list of patents assigned that classification number in a window. Click on one and take a look. Patents look a bit like overgrown MARC records.

4. Now for a mapping between system vocabularies. Delete the Patent Office webpage window. Return to the pale yellow page listing U.S. Patents Classification Codes with the peanut butter result. This time select Look up International Patents Classification codes associated with selected US code then click on Submit Search. A short ranked list of International Patent Classification codes should appear in a window. Click on your choice, then on Submit Selection and your search will be forwarded to the WIPO patent database in Geneva, Switzerland. What is the top listed classification? Optionally, click on a classification number button and then on Submit Selection to see a patents in the WIPO database. Use guest as UserID and as password.

5. Return to the Prototypes page, select the INSPEC "General" database, and try a search for Organization of Information in Collections. When you get a ranked list, click on the box next to Information systems, scroll down, select Search Thesaurus then Submit Selection. When Information Systems appears, positioned in its hierarchy, try navigating in the INSPEC Thesaurus by clicking on any one other term then scroll down, select Search Thesaurus then Submit Selection. Repeat as interested, then, to send off the search to the INSPEC database of the California Digital Library, scroll down, select Search Database then Submit Selection.

6. Return to the Prototypes page and try a search for Galileo in each of the three specialized subdomains of INSPEC: Biotechnology; Information Studies; and Water, writing down the top-listed INSPEC Thesaurus term. What did you get? Can you explain any differences?

7. Write down some topics of interest to you, then go to a new index to the Library of Congress Subject Headings at otlet.sims.berkeley.edu/mevm.html and use this index to see if the LCSH headings resemble what you wrote down.

Optional 1: Go to the Prototypes page. Do a search in any database. What did you find?
Optional 2: For an introduction to work on entry vocabulary indexes at SIMS see: "Mapping Entry Vocabulary to Unfamiliar Metadata Vocabularies." D-Lib Magazine Vol.5 No.1 January 1999. www.dlib.org/dlib/january99/buckland/01buckland.html