AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
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F. Thesaurus Manual
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Thesaurus Structure
- The AustLit Thesaurus is a tool for vocabulary control and consists of three modules:
All Concepts All Places and Awards.
- Each of these modules contains a hierarchical arrangement of broader terms, narrower terms, and related terms and uses synonyms to refer from non-preferred terms to preferred terms.
- Each of the modules has an Enrichment terms category where terms waiting for approval and incorporation into the hierarchy are situated temporarily and, in the case of the All Concepts Enrichment terms category, where terms such as proper names that cannot be accommodated in the hierarchy are situated permanently.
- Notes are provided to explain scope and usage of terms.
- Maintenance notes are provided to communicate with indexers.
- Indexers work within a special thesaurus interface accessible from the Maintenance homepage or the edit screen of records.
Thesaurus Instructions
All team members can add new place names, award terms and enrichment terms; only the Thesaurus editor can add new concepts to the All concepts hierarchy
When searching for any terms in the Thesaurus (Places, Awards or Concept) it is wise to use a wildcard (*) to truncate the term. When searching for concepts remember that plural terms are most often used and that the symbol & should be replaced by AND in caps in 'portmanteau terms such as Friends & friendship (here truncation is easier.
You can search for an term in the thesaurus in two ways:
From the Maintenance homepage.
Or, by clicking on Choose from the relevant field in the edit screen(ie. Subject-Concept;
Work award or Agent award, Place).
Place Names
The All Places hierarchy in the AustLit Thesaurus is used to record:
Place/s of Birth and/or Death
Place/s of publication
Setting/s
Places as subject/s.
The following instructions describe how to add a new term or edit an existing
term while you are creating a new work record. The thesaurus can also be accessed from the maintenance home page. This access point is useful, if you wish
to set the place name up before your create/edit a record.
Searching for a Place Name
- From the relevant field (ie. Place of Birth/Death, Place of
publication, Setting-Spatial or a Subject-Spatial), click on Choose. You will
be presented with a Thesaurus dialog box.
- Enter the place name in the search box in the right hand corner and press Go
or Enter. If the term you require is not returned, create a new place name
(see instructions below)
Coverage
For Australian places, the coverage in the Thesaurus is extensive and should
be quite comprehensive (ie. we include state, regions/area, city/suburb/town,
eg. Australia > New South Wales > Sydney > Sydney Eastern Suburbs > Sydney
Eastern Harbourside > Double Bay).For International places, the coverage is not so extensive. For UK, Canada, US
and NZ we would like to record counties, Provinces, states and regions
respectively, but for all others, we only record the country, broad
area/region, and then city/suburb/town information at the next level, eg. >
Overseas countries > Europe > Western Europe > France > Paris ;
Verification Process
- Please take care when adding new entries to all authority lists. Confirm place
in hierarchy using reputable sources.
- For Australian place names, use the
electronic version of the AUSLIG gazetteer, or a hard-copy of the Australian
Gazetteer. The Post Code Directory (in the back of printed White Pages), is
another authoritative source worth using for Australian place names.
- For international place names use the Getty Place Names Thesaurus as a helpful
reference point (also check other authoritative sources).
- Use the Anglicised form of name, eg. Rome, not Roma.
Adding a Place Name
- After you have verified your place name and context details return to the
Thesaurus window, you should still have 'nothing found' as a search result.
Using the context information that you have found in your verification search,
find where you would like to place a new term in the
hierarchy.
Example: We would like to add a new place name 'Timbuktoo' as a new suburb of
East Melbourne.
- Using the Search for the broader place name that you know already exists in
the top right corner search box and press enter or click OK. i.e. Search on
'East Melbourne'
- Find the relevant term in the results list. NB. There may be a number of
similar results (eg. East Melbourne: Richmond area) so you will need to ensure
that you choose the correct parent term to add the new place name.
- Click on the circular arrows, or the synchronise icon, of your chosen term (in
the pink section) to open up the hierarchical tree on the blue section.
- Right click on the broader place name (highlighted in the blue section) that
you wish to add a new term to. Eg. Right click on the word 'East Melbourne'.
-
You should be presented with a menu. Choose Add topic here.
- Another thesaurus window will open.
- The system presents a message saying "Nothing found". Type in new spatial term
and choose New. A small box will open with your new term in it, check
spelling, capitalisation etc and if correct click Add New.
- You will be prompted by the system to confirm your decision to add the new
term. If all is fine, press enter or click on OK. If you wish to cancel, you
can do this at this step without saving the term.
- If you have saved the term, the system will present you with a confirmation
message and the hierarchy that you have added a term to will appear in the
pink side. You can choose from there or search again using the Search box in
the top right hand corner and your new term should appear to choose.
Special notes
- Mythical place names: Should be set up as Enrichment (Unassigned) terms under
the Place name group (see Enrichment term instructions below).
Enter the name
followed by (Mythical place), eg. Atlantis (Mythical place).
- Notes: You might wish to add a note about the use of Malaya/Malaysia, eg.
"For works produced pre-1963" use Malaya as the preferred place name; for works
produced 1963 and after, use Malaysia.
- Synonyms: are set up to link users to the preferred term, eg. Zhonghua has been
set up as a synonym for China. China is the preferred form of place name.
- If there are known synonyms or you think there needs to
be a scope'usage note, contact the Thesaurus Editor with details once you have set up
your new place name.
Award Terms
The Awards module of the thesaurus is used to record information about:
Literary awards won for particular works, eg. The novel Eucalyptus by Murray
Bail won the Miles Franklin Award in 1999. Work awards are assigned to the
work record, and automatically display on the author/s record.
Literary awards won by authors for general literary achievement, eg. Rosemary
Dobson won the Patrick White Award in 1994. Agents awards are assigned to the
agent record,
literary awards as subjects, eg. The book The
Most Glittering Prize: The Miles Franklin Literary Award 1957-1998 by Harry
Heseltine, which is a critical work about the history of the Miles Franklin
Award.
Searching for an Award
- You can search for an award term in two ways:
From the Maintainer's thesaurus.
OR, by clicking on Choose from the relevant awards field (ie. Subject-Concept;
Work award or Agent award). In the Thesaurus dialog box, enter the award term
in the search box at the top right hand corner and press Go or Enter.
- Take care when searching, as an award may not be listed quite as you might
expect it to be. For example, you may be searching on a narrower name or section
of an award, when you should be searching for the broader award. Try a couple of
ways of searching before you create a new record. Use the wildcard (*) to expand
search results.
- When certain that the term is not in the Thesaurus you can create a new Award
term (see instructions below). Before creating a new award term, you must verify
the award term details.
Structure of Award name - If an award is a major one, it will often have
sections which are well known in their own right.
- Example:
The 'Victorian Premier's Literary Awards' has the following separate narrower
award terms: 'Louis Esson Prize for Drama', 'Prize for Young Adult Fiction', 'The
Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate', The C. J. Dennis Prize
for Poetry', 'The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction', and 'The Vance Palmer
Prize for Fiction'.
- Example: 'The Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award' has the narrower awards
'Book of the Year Award', 'Book of the Year: Early Childhood', 'Book of the
Year: Older Readers', 'Book of the Year: Younger Readers', 'Clifton Pugh Award',
'Eve Pownall Award' and 'Picture Book of the Year
Coverage
- Australian awards: AustLit aims to be as comprehensive as possible. We are interested in the
following details: Award name, year and placings information.
NOTE: Record shortlisting for awards when information is available. For the Children's Book of the Year of Award you should record
all placing information, including commended, honour books etc.
- International Awards: Coverage of international awards will also not be
comprehensive.
Verification process
Please take care when adding new entries to the authority list. Confirm place in
hierarchy using reputable sources, if you cannot verify the form or name, enter
it as it is presented in the source of information.
Australian awards - Australian Literary Awards & Fellowships (Thorpe,
ISSN: 1036-1669)
- Most of the major state awards have their own web sites, just do a web search
using Google or the like.
Eg Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.
- OzLit: presents a smallish range of Australian literature prizes. gives winners
only
- Australian publishers, some publishers offer or sponsor awards and usually list
these on their publisher sites.
For the Vogel Award see Dymocks and Allen and Unwin.
International awards
- Booktrust: http://www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes.htm Very good for UK prizes and
the Commonwealth Writers prize.
- Use the Google Directory (www.google.com), choose Arts > Literature > World
Literature > (choose a country eg Canada) > Awards. [The latter is a bit hit and
miss, not all countries have an awards category, but it's worth looking.]
- The Internet School Library Media Center:
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/awards.htm has a good range of awards (US
emphasis, but some international information)
- New Zealand award site:
http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Guides/LiteraryPrizes/index.asp Good list of
NZ awards, plus major international ones.
Adding an Award
- For Work Awards and Author Awards, it is best to create the awards record from
within a record.
- For Subject Awards, it is recommended that you first check and/or create the
Award first in the Thesaurus and then choose it from within the record.
- Only create a new term after thorough searching and verification of the award
name, section etc.
- For example, the new award term "Gold Star Award" needs to be
added as a new Australian Award. Go to the Maintainer thesaurus award interface.
- Using the top right corner search box, enter Gold Star Award and press enter
or click OK. The system presents a message saying: 'Nothing found.
- Left click on the white box next to the broad category Awards in the blue
section. You should be presented with three categories: Australian awards,
International awards and enrichment terms.
- Right click on the category you wish to add a new term to. Eg. Right click on
Australian Awards to add the term Gold Star Award. You should be presented
with a menu. Choose Add topic here.
- Another thesaurus window will open, the award term should be waiting in the
box. If not, type in your new award term (with correct capitalisation etc.)
into the Search box in the top right hand corner and then click on the New
button in the bottom right-hand corner. The system will present you with a box
that should contain the award term you wish to add. Press enter or click on
Add New. You will be prompted by the system to confirm your decision to add
the new term. If all is fine, press enter or click on OK. If you wish to
cancel, you can do this at this step without saving the term.
- If you have saved the term, the system will present you with a confirmation
message. The new term should appear in the right hand side of the thesaurus
editor screen.
Award Name Changes
If the change is a synonym will be used to link the two forms of the name.
If the change it is major another authority term will need to be created and the two terms related. In both cases use the note field to explain the change if necessary.
Enrichment Terms
These are terms with no assigned place in the hierarchy of any Thesaurus section; the three
broad categories (All concepts, All places, All Awards) within the Thesaurus all
have a narrower Enrichment term category.
There are two types of enrichment term:
- Those that will never be added to the Thesaurus e.g. mythical places not eligible for inclusion in All Places; proper nouns for Ships/Trains/Landmarks/Churches/Buildings/Bridges such as London Bridge, Big Ben; names of fictional characters such as Peter Pan and Mickey Mouse.
- Those in 'holding bay' mode - i.e. already created and awaiting 'admission' to the thesaurus or those newly created by yourself.
Enrichment Terms Procedures
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NOTE: If you use 'permanent' enrichment terms (proper names, mythical places, names of fictional characters), always use the relevant thesaurus term as well - London Bridge + Bridges, Big Ben+Clocks, Peter Pan+ Fictional characters.
- With either 'holding bay' enrichment terms, there is no need to add a broader Thesaurus term as well. The Thesaurus editor will re-assign the broader term if the enrichment term is not accepted,
e.g.If you create an enrichment term 'Loganberries' there is no need to assign the broader Thesaurus term Fruit as well
- Please keep a note of enrichment terms you create and list them in you weekly reports. Ideally you should provide some clarification (e.g Flares - trousers?, distress signals?), otherwise the Thesaurus editor has to check the work concerned and it's not always clear from that. It's also helpful to suggest where it might go in the hierarchy, and some synonyms, if you had a couple of tries before creating it.
Adding Enrichment Terms
When considering adding a new enrichment term, search the thesaurus and existing
enrichment term file to ensure that the term does not already exist. Use wild
card to extend possibilities of hits. It is also useful to search on similar
terms as there may already be an applicable thesaurus/enrichment term that can
be applied equally as well.
Do not add new Award or Place enrichment
terms (other than mythical places.
The following instructions refer to adding or editing a new term while creating
a new work record. The Thesaurus can also be accessed from the Maintenance homepage
- From the relevant subject or setting field, click on Choose. You will be
presented with a Thesaurus dialog box.
- Enter the enrichment term in the search box in the right hand corner and press
go. If you find the term, click on the tick and it will be pasted into the
record. If you do not receive any results, or you do receive a list of results
and the required enrichment term is not in the list, you can create a new
enrichment term.
- After searching for the desired term and determining that no suitable term
exists, you can add a new enrichment term.
- Use the enrichment category for the appropriate hierarchy (all concepts, all
places, awards) and left click on the white button next to the broad category
name (eg. All Concepts for a subject-concept) to open up the thesaurus list.
- The category, enrichment terms (unassigned) appears at the bottom of the list.
Right click on the words.
- You should be presented with a pop-up menu. Choose Create enrichment term ...
Another thesaurus window will open, type the new enrichment term into the
Search box in the top right hand corner and then click on the New button on
the bottom right hand corner. Use correct capitalisation, first letter of
phrase is capitalised; first letter of each proper nouns is capitalised.
- The system will present you with a box that should contain the enrichment term
you wish to add, press enter or click on Add New.
- You will be prompted by the system to confirm your decision to add the new
term. If all is fine, press enter or click on OK. If you wish to cancel, you
can do so at this step without saving the term.
- If you have saved the term, the system will present you with a confirmation
message. The new term will then appear in the right hand box for you to choose
to add to the work record.
Editing the Thesaurus
Editing Priveleges
- All team members can add terms directly to the All Awards and All Places Modules and to the enrichment section of the All concepts module.
- All team members can add Maintenance notes and can submit synonyms and usage notes to the Thesaurus editor for approval
- The Thesaurus Editor has responsibility for the following:
Moving terms
Merging terms
Creating new parent terms
Creating related terms
Approvingsynonyms
Approving scope/usage notes
Editing or Altering Terms
- All team members can edit thesaurus to correct terms, ie.
to fix a typo error, capitalise or uncapitalise a term, etc.
- To edit the record, it is recommended that you access the Thesaurus from the Maintenance home page.
- For example, to change Music-Study and
Teaching to be Music-Study & Teaching:
Enter the major search term/s (eg. Music study and teaching) in the search box
in the right hand corner and press Go.
- The system should present you with a list of results showing the application
of the search terms. Eg. Music Study and Teaching is in two hierarchies
Culture & cultural life > Music > and Education. Any changes to a term will
automatically change them for the other hierarchies, but you will need to
refresh or re-search to see the change.
- Click on the circular arrow, the synchronise icon, of one of the broader terms
in the pink section (right hand side) to open up the hierarchical tree on the
blue section (left hand side). Eg. click on the button near Music > Cultural
life, this section will open up in the blue section. Right click on the term/s
you wish to edit, eg. right click on Music-Study and Teaching.
- You should be presented with a menu. Choose Edit...
- An Edit screen will open, make appropriate changes and update the record.
Subject Indexing Guidelines
General Guidelines
Subject indexing aims to:
provide access to the content of the literature we source
make retrieval as accurate and meaningful as possible
Indexer's Task
Compiled from a presentation made in 2001 by Tessa Wooldridge, Senior Indexer, ADFA.
1. Examine the following resources
These elements of the work can provide you with
a real 'feel' for a work before you actually READ it.
- Publisher's blurb
- Index
- Contents page
- Introductions and Prefaces
- Abstracts
- Resources Sources. Refer to References for Secondary Sources for help.
- Authors' and Publishers' web sites
- Reviews
2. Identify the main concepts
- Read it and pull the guts out
What are the main ideas?
What is the intention of the author?
What is being
conveyed?
Ask yourself - "Would a client want to retrieve this particular
record if they were searching on the subjects you have assigned?" Eg. if a
short story is about gardens, and there is one reference to a rose, you would
only assign the term Gardens, not Roses, because it is not essentially about
roses.
- Who is your likely client for this item?
You may have clients on more than one level, take this into account when
assigning subjects. AustLit's primary audience is the tertiary/research
sector, but it is also a tool being used by schools and public libraries.
- Describe what the item is about, not what it is
For example, if it is satirical, add this as a genre, not a subject; if it
discusses the use of satire in Frank Moorhouse's stories, add 'Satire' as a
subject
3. Express the concepts in thesaurus terms
- Become very familiar with terms in the thesaurus and how they are set up, remember
to use plural forms when searching for subjects. Don't forget you can use
the wildcard symbol to truncate your search if you are not sure. Refer to Thesaurus Structure for additional help.
- Be as specific as possible (within the confines of the thesaurus)
If it's about kangaroos, use Kangaroos, not Native fauna; if it's about IVF,
use Reproductive technologies, not Reproduction. Do not use broad generic
terms unless they accurately reflect the content of the work (eg. do not
assign 'Australian women writers' to a biographical work which is about Judith
Wright). Refer to ERIC Indexing Principles
- Remember to assign geographic & temporal settings.
These are really useful for people who are searching for literature depicting
particular places and eras. Geographic setting is applied to the setting as it
was at the time depicted in the writing (eg. Heidelberg, Vic. and Parramatta,
NSW were 'bush' in the 19th century, but became 'urban' in the 20th century).
The same principle applies to place names (eg. Van Diemen's Land and
Tasmania).
- Use your best judgement and trust your instincts!
Subject indexing is subjective, and each contributor approaches the practice
with different knowledge and experience. We say on our information pages that:
"AustLit contributors are literary researchers, librarians and bibliographers,
they assign subject terms according to professional guidelines, but must also
use individual judgement. Terms chosen are those deemed appropriate by the
contributor. Subject terms are assigned fairly 'literally' and generally do
not cover allusive or metaphorical meanings. No subject terms are assigned if
the subjects of indexed works are obscure and ambiguous."
- Deconstruct at the beginning, reconstruct at the end.
The process of assigning subjects effectively pulls a work apart. When you
have finished applying terms, have a look at them as a group and see if you
think they effectively represent the content and intent of the work as a
whole.
Unsighted items
Ideally, subject indexing should be done from the item in hand, however, it is
possible to assign subjects to an unsighted work using secondary resources; they can give you some guidance for subjects that can be checked
and added to when the item is sighted. If you do index an item from another
source or from a review, you will need to enter FOS or IFR into a Maintenance
Note. Once the item has been sighted by someone on the team, the subjects can be checked and this maintenance
note can be deleted.
Common Questions
- How do I decide if there is 'enough' of something to include it as a subject?
Put yourself in the position of a client - would you want to
retrieve this item if you were interested in the designated subject(s)?
- What do I do when I can't find a thesaurus term?
- If you do not understand the item or can not be sure of
the author's intent (eg. an obscure or ambiguous poem), don't
give it a subject.
- If the subject terms are obscure and ambiguous, you can add
the Subject-Concept No subjects assigned, reader's interpretation recommended
as a Subject-Concept to indicate that the item has been sighted, but no
subjects have been assigned.
- If you can assign a one or two terms but you
really feel that you have grasped all the meaning of the work, you can add the
known subjects and also add Further reader's interpretation recommended term
as Subject-Concept.
- If you know exactly what it's about, but there is not an
appropriate subject in the thesaurus you will need to create a new
enrichment term and notify the Thesaurus Editor.
- How many subjects should I use?
There is no hard and fast rule. Have a ball park figure in mind and use it as
a guide.
For example:
- Monograph / book 8-10 subjects
- Critical article 6-8 subjects
- Column 3-4 subjects
- Poetry 3-4 subjects
Refer to ERIC Indexing Principles for further help on over-indexing and under-indexing.
- How long should it take me?
Well, it all depends. If you are generating a standard level record, use the
following benchmarks:
- Novel, Drama
30 min
- Biography, Autobiography 30 min
- Short story 10-20 min
- Verse 5 min
- Critical article 20-30 min
Note: A criticism or a substantial biography may alert you to works previously
unidentified by Austlit. In this case, you will be generating new
records in addition to subject indexing the item in hand. This will naturally
take longer.
Such an unsighted work may only have the 'bare bones' to begin with, but you or
someone else can upgrade it at a later time, better to provide some access
(and an opportunity for retrieval) than none.
- How much representation do I give to 'minor' and topical issues?
For example, a crime novel has as a sub-plot about a police case surrounding
the activities of a Greek criminal; a poem is about sexual intercourse between
2 men; a short story is about Australian politics and refers to the dismissal
of the Whitlam Government. Remember we're about providing access. Could these
'minor' themes be 'major' for our clients? If yes, provide subjects!
- Be consistent - apply terms uniformly across records and seek equivalency with
the practice of other team members.
- Be informed - expand your knowledge in relation to both literature and subject
indexing.
- Be impartial - avoid subjective interpretations, subject indexing should be
analytical but not evaluative. Evaluation can be incorporated into an abstract.
New Directions 2004
These guidelines were added in 2004 addressing the need to standardise the nature and extent of our subject indexing across the whole team.
The AustLit approach to indexing from 2004 constitutes a reduction in the extent to which we subject-index our literary works, influenced by several factors:
- The growth of AustLit: Because of the size of the database, we need no longer be concerned about users not finding enough material. In fact the opposite is true and researchers have commented that they are getting too many hits in some searches and that the subject content of these hits is sometimes frustratingly small.
- More From other Source material: Another factor in this consideration is that we include more and more FOS material. This usually has few subject concepts and contrasts sharply with material indexed in-hand, resulting in very uneven indexing.
- The need to use subjects as access points not description: it is tempting to use subject concepts as a way of describing a work, rather than purely to provide access points and this does sometimes serve a purpose. However, all indexers should be restrained with this and use the abstract and note fields if necessary, rather than sprinkling in a whole lot of subject concepts which relate to very minor aspects/elements of the work.
Indexing Obituaries, Autobiographies, Biographies, Interviews
When a journal with more than one editor is used as a subject work, all the editors then have this work listed in their Works About. This creates erroneous figures and strange associations.
Example: An Obituary for Helen Daniel has both Helen Daniel as a subject agent and ABR as a subject work. This Obituary comes up in Helen Daniel's Works About column BUT it also comes up as an Obituary in the Works About columns of all the other editors of the Australian Book Review, including those like Peter Rose who are not dead yet!
It is acceptable for this situation to occur in the case of Criticism, Column, Essay - i.e. for a Criticism with both Helen Daniel and the ABR as subjects to come up as a Criticism in the Works About column for Peter Rose - but not with the forms that relate more personally to agents - autobiography, biography, obituary, interview.
This cannot be changed systemically, but the problem can be mostly avoided by following the same procedure with these Forms as we do with reviews.
-
Reviews: Usually with reviews we simply select the reviewed work - using the Review of attribute. However, the manual guidelines for Reviews state :
'A review which has a wider focus than a reviewed work or works can have subject concepts assigned e.g. Peter Craven's 'Review Essay' 'The Perils of the Popular' which reviews three works, including Winton's Dirt Music in the context of popular fiction writing : http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=C%23%23Nj '
So our practice here for reviews is just to assign the works reviewed unless there is a special additional subject focus
.
-
Obituaries: Use only the Subject agent - the person who has died - unless there is a special additional subject focus
. For editors of journals and anthologies etc. there is no need to put the journal/work as the connection between the two is adequately made in other ways in the database for searching purposes.
-
Interviews: Use only the Subject agent (the person being interviewed) unless there is a special additional subject focus
. There is no need to put their journal/work as the connection between the two is adequately made in other ways in the database for searching purposes.
-
Biographies and Autobiographies: here there is more latitude and need for subject concepts but indexers should restrict them themselves to major emphases in the biographies and autobiographies. There is no need to put their journal/work as the connection between the two is adequately made in other ways in the database for searching purposes.
- With all these forms, minimise the number of 'generic' subjects assigned. The forms themselves imply certain types of coverage e.g. users will assume that in an Interview an author talks about his life, his career, his work, his art etc. so that the very broad categories such as Literary career, Writer's craft, Writer's works, Growing up etc. are unnecessary here.
- If you feel that some elaboration is needed write a brief abstract e.g. Obituary focuses on the latter part of X's life when he edited XYZ OR Interview concentrates principally on Y's early life, education and family OR Biography deals primarily with X's years when unemployed.
Subject Agents for Criticism
For various reasons there have been variations in practice amongst indexers when adding a Subject agent to a Criticism dealing with specific works. From 2004 indexers should always add a subject agent, even if the Criticism is focused primarily on a specific work or works.
- Other databases such as the influential MLA Bibliography put Malouf, An Imaginary Life and Subject concepts on their record for this particular work, a critical essay by Genevieve Laigle. Users expect to retrieve it by a name search for Malouf.
http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=Cw]1
- Feedback from users has also indicated that they expect a search on Criticism + Subject agent to bring up all the criticisms of that agent and his works.This is an expectation in the client community and we need to meet it. In practice, it is very difficult decide whether a work is about only a specific work - even the most specific may relate individual works back to the writer generally so even if a Criticism is about a specific work, we should also assign the Subject agent.
- In effect a writer can be seen as having two dimensions - a creative artist and a person. So we can use the writer as a Subject agent for both Criticism and Biography . Our use of Forms helps to separate these aspects out -
Biography+ Subject agent is mainly about the person
Criticism + Subject agent indicates that it is mainly about the agent as a creative artist and his works. (There is no need to add the Subject concept Writers Works.)
We can also use the Abstract to explain if necessary.
- Some older AustLit records are out of step withthis indexing practice. As you come across them please alter them. Here is another example of the correct practice:
http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&
workId=C6@g
- NOTE: When a work is about a great number of aspects of a writer and many of their works we cannot fully itemise Subject concepts and Subject works. Assigning the Subject agent is sufficient, unless there is a special subject focus. Explain in an abstract if necessary
e.g. Dorothy Green's work on Henry Handel Richardson: http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=C(;i
ERIC Indexing Principles
These are some sections copied from the manual for indexers put out by the ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) who produce one of the oldest and most respected international databases.
Indexing Specificity
Overindexing and Underindexing
- Underindexing is usually the result of not putting oneself in the position of the user. An underindexed item is generally either tagged with a few broad terms behind which the item is effectively lost, or it is tagged with a few specialised terms the indexer is grateful to find in the title or abstract.
- Overindexing can be the result of the following:
- not taking the time to decide what is truly indexable information and what is merely mentioned in passing. It takes less time to overindex than to index with discrimination
- scattergun approach - choosing several terms that are all very similar - not taking time to choose the best term
- permitting an imbalance between the size of the document (i.e. small) and the number of subject concepts (i.e. many). The indexer, forgetting the end user, squeezes every concept out of a 5 or 6 page item even though many terms may be represented by less than a significant amount of text. A user retrieving such a minor amount of material is unlikely to thank such an indexer.
Last updated: 19 September 2008.
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