Course Objectives

Learn how to organize information in collections in order to help users satisfy their information needs.

• Achieve understanding of
  • basic concepts and established standards associated with the organization of information in collections
  • similarities and differences between human and computer indexing
• Acquire experience in using and designing organizational schemas
• Develop skills in evaluating indexing systems

Organization of the Course

Major Assignments

1. Index analysis and description

Each student will select an index (print or electronic) that has been designed to describe the content, meaning, purpose and features of messages, texts and documents for information retrieval.  Characteristics of an appropriate index include the following:

• The database must have a substantial index that represents the subject content of messages.
• Indexes organized primarily for the purpose of selling merchandise (e.g., sales catalogues or web sites such as NetFlix) are usually not suitable.
• Indexes that primarily consist of names of articles or documents or of proper names such as people, locations or organizations are not acceptable.
• Indexes that are at least partly displayed (at least some index terms displayed to the user) are strongly preferred. Non-displayed indexes (e.g., Google) provide access to database content only by searching of text.

Each student's index must be different and must be approved by the instructor.

The student will analyze the index in terms of the essential characteristics of knowledge representation and information retrieval schemas as specified in Section IX. Five reports on the project are due over the course of the semester. Each report should be no more than two double-spaced typed pages.

All assignments must be uploaded to the E-companion drop box and also turned in to the instructor during class in written form, except by special permission of the instructor. Each assignment must include the name of the index being analyzed, the assignment number, and appropriate headings for each topic. Assignments missing this information will be returned.

Guidelines for class presentation:

• Approximately 5 minutes per student (depending on class size).  Please keep within your time limit.
• You will not be able to discuss every aspect of your index in the available time.  Pick the most important or interesting to focus on. Illustrate your talk with examples from the index.
• Practice to make sure that your ideas are clear and that you can say what you need to say within the time frame.  If possible, do it in front of a classmate or friend.

Each written report and the oral presentation will be graded. Final grade for the analysis project will be based on the average grade for all assignments.

Assessment will be based on:

• Thoroughness and clarity of description of properties of the index.
• Accurate use of terminology and concepts.
• Reasoned critique of index design and usability.

2. Index design

Each student will design an index for a collection of documents, discuss the rationale for the design schema and policy, and illustrate the design. Criteria for a suitable database:

• The documents in the database must be sufficiently numerous that an index would be useful.
• The content of the database for which the index is designed must be sufficiently complex that a substantive topical subject index is appropriate.
• The intended users of the index must be described in terms of their information needs and the policy must be stated in terms of usefulness and usability for the intended users of the database. Personal collections (e.g., of cookbooks or CDs) in which the information needs and collection policy are appropriately described as representing the taste of one individual or a small number of individuals are usually not appropriate.

Each student's project must be approved in advance by the instructor.  A more detailed description of this project is in Section X.

Assessment will be based on:

• quality of index design
• appropriate use of terminology and concepts
• clarity of description and rationale
• clear illustration of key features
• completeness of required elements.

Primary emphasis will be given to evidence of understanding of the representation of content and the essential characteristics of indexes.

Students will turn in key elements of this project during the semester for feedback. Assignments will be reviewed and commented on by the instructor, but not graded.  The final grade for this project will be based upon the version handed in at the end of the semester.

The final project is due the last week. Students must turn in a printed copy to the instructor and also upload a copy to the E-companion Dropbox

Methods of Assessment

The methods of assessment are designed to assess the degree to which students achieve the objectives of the course.  Each assessment covers all course objectives.

Bibliography

Texts:

Taylor, Arlene G. (2004) The Organization of Information. 2^nd edition. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Anderson, James D. (1997) Guidelines for Indexes and Related Information Retrieval Devices.  National Information Standard Organization (NISO) Technical Report 2.  Bethesda, MD: NISO Press. Available from http://www.niso.org/standards/std_resources.html>.

Wellisch, Hans H. (1995)  Indexing from A to Z. Second edition.  New York: H. W. Wilson. [On reserve Z695.9.W45 1991] (Required readings will be available from eCompanion. Students who purchased the book have reported that the best price has been available at barnesandnoble.com.).

Additional readings:

The Taylor and Wellisch books each contain extensive bibliographies.