Transcript
search terms and other confusionsAnne Welsh
Department of Information Studies
MEDIATED SEARCH
NOT *ALWAYS* A POSITIVE IMAGE
“Are you sure this thing understands apostrophes?”
WHAT THE LIBRARIAN SAWCONTROLLING THE [SEARCH] VOCABULARY
“I’m looking for information on types of weed”
“Are you a keen gardener?”
User interrogation for disambiguation
Argot / Homonyms
Synonyms
Synonyms
Catalogue rules, OK?
“Fuzzy” / Soft Terms
“What does she mean, it’s not on the Internet?”
The Internet is vast, with infinite relationships
SKOS attempts to map these
Who controls the web vocabulary?
LCSH (above): FAMILY VIOLENCE (neutral tone)
Feminist Library: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN (political statement)
Are we “victims” or “survivors” of violence?