Week 4 reading notes

Witten 2.2 --

It appears that information overload was a problem even as far back as 1674; the quotation from Hyde illustrates that it has always been problematic to try to condense vast amounts of information into mere subject headings and organize the headings helpfully. I'm glad to learn the term collocation, a more specific term for the methods of organizing information in a library, and I'm interested in the author's implication that confirmation is now an essential middle stage in digital information retrieval, along with increased priorities on acquisition and navigation.

The article also points out the more fluid boundaries of digital objects, which can be so easily copied/altered. This makes me think about how important it is to annotate versions and provide adequate metadata. Other interesting points were raised, too... for instance, the chart showing the dozens of spellings of Muammar Qaddafi's name illustrates how difficult it can be to acquire comprehensive metadata when so many variables are in place, as well as the need for programming the variants as cross-references.

Witten 5.4-5.7 --

Part of this chapter reiterates what I've learned in previous classes about how different bibliographic metadata format standards fill different needs: some (e.g. MARC) providing rich details (for example, for the unique documents held by archivists) and some (e.g. Dublin Core) aiming more for breadth and interoperability. I was interested to learn more about BibTEX and Refer, as well, since I had never even heard of these standards before. So many standards! I'm glad the article addressed the possibilities for their interoperability. This article also gave a good rundown of multimedia file formats, so I'll keep it in mind as a useful resource.

I was interested to hear that key phrase metadata can be obtained automatically from digital documents with some degree of success. This surely solves some of the problems Hyde was worrying about more than 300 years ago! And the article illustrated why it's helpful to build a key phrase hierarchy for enhanced data retrieval.

Gilliland - Introduction to Metadata --


This article provided a pretty good summary of metadata, finding aids, and the structure of information systems. I'm especially interested in what the author said about user-created metadata systems that are flourishing on the Web. I understand that lack of quality control is a concern with such grassroots-level tagging, but I also see how this is a helpful way for huge amounts of data to be collectively organized by multiple people.

Much of what the author said (e.g. about the value of metadata) was already clear to me after 1.5 years of library school, but I do appreciate the author's charts illustrating the various types/characteristics of metadata, which help me to see categorical distinctions among descriptors.

Weibel - Border Crossings: Reflections on a Decade of Metadata Consensus Building --


I was glad to read (albeit briefly; there weren't many details) about an attempt to involve representatives from so many different communities in bringing together disparate metadata standards. Interacting and networking among various professions and disciplines is crucial to effective Information Science practices, and this was a brief glimpse into some of the concerns/confusions/challenges that arise when various institutions attempt to collaborate, each employing its own standards and assumptions. As I said, I might have liked more details rather than just summary statements, but I'm glad at least to see that collaboration is happening.