University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Capitalizing on Information Organization and Information Visualization for a New-Generation Catalogue

Julien, Charles-Antoine; Guastavino, Catherine; Bouthillier, France

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/34600

Description

Title
Capitalizing on Information Organization and Information Visualization for a New-Generation Catalogue
Author(s)
  • Julien, Charles-Antoine
  • Guastavino, Catherine
  • Bouthillier, France
Issue Date
2012
Keyword(s)
  • Next-Generation Discovery and Access
  • Library Catalogs
Abstract
Subject searching is difficult with traditional text-based online public access library catalogues (OPACs), and the next-generation discovery layers are keyword searching and result filtering tools that offer little support for subject browsing. Next-generation OPACs ignore the rich network of relations offered by controlled subject vocabulary, which can facilitate subject browsing. A new generation of OPACs could leverage existing information-organization investments and offer online searchers a novel browsing and searching environment. This is a case study of the design and development of a virtual reality subject browsing and information retrieval tool. The functional prototype shows that the Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH) can be shaped into a useful and usable tree structure serving as a visual metaphor that contains a real world collection from the domain of science and engineering. Formative tests show that users can effectively browse the LCSH tree and carve it up based on their keyword search queries. This study uses a complex information-organization structure as a defining characteristic of an OPAC that goes beyond the standard keyword search model, toward the cutting edge of online search tools.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/34600
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2012.0022
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2012 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 61 (1) Summer 2012: Next-Generation Discovery and Access in Library Catalogs PRIMARY
Library Trends 61 (1) Summer 2012: Next-Generation Discovery and Access in Library Catalogs. Edited by Kathryn La Barre.