What is this collection about? Issues in analysing collection subjects

Ritchie ThomsonPresented at the Electric Connections

2006 seminar, Dundee

Overview

Collection-level descriptionSubject retrieval of collectionsDetermining the subjectExamples

Collection-level description

Metadata describing a collection as a whole Not in terms of its constituent items

That’s what a catalogue does

Applied to collections of all types and sizes National Library of Scotland collection Aberdeen Harbour Board photographic archive Burrell collection

Subject retrieval

Subject retrieval at the collection level is required to “landscape” information environments by topic, before item searching is carried out

Which collections should I search to find items on my subject of interest? I do not want to waste time looking in a natural

history collection for Greek urns!

Subject retrieval in SCONE

For subject-based collections Library of Congress Subject Headings

Text retrieval of controlled “keywords” Albeit in American English

Dewey Decimal Classification Numeric classification applied in many libraries;

designed for item-level retrieval Identified by the HILT project as a tool for

landscaping and interoperability with subject topics

Is it feasible?

At some point, a collection may be determined to be so general that analysis is meaningless It’s about everything, or too many things The tipping-point

But if a collection is about one topic, or a few, we can legitimately ask What is this collection about? What is the subject(s) of the collection?

What is the subject of the collection? 1

The subject of the items in the collection? Yes, but A collection of Scottish poetry may contain no

item about poetry, only examples of it Subject: Scottish poetry

The historical context of the items? The contents of a National Trust property

Subject: Social history of Scotland of the 19th century

What is the subject of the collection? 2

The cultural context of the items? Objects owned, used, or just touched by Robert

Burns Subject: Robert Burns

The biographical context of the items? The personal library of a famous person

Subject: Sir Walter Scott

What is the question?

Why does this collection exist?What is the provenance of this collection?Why do people want to access this

collection?Where does this collection fit in the wider

context?What does this collection say to me?

What’s it like?

Sticking jelly to walls with six inch nails …

But it seems to work!

Thank you!

Questions?Answers?See SCONE at

http://scone.strath.ac.uk/service/index.cfm