Subject Description

1. Subject Description LIS 571 The Organization and Control of Recorded Information

2. OVERVIEW What is a subject? Why distinguish subject from physical description? What are LIS processes for subject description? What is subject analysis?

3. WHAT IS A SUBJECT? A subject is . . . a representation of the intellectual content of an information object, or its aboutness, topic, theme, expressed concepts or ideas, area of interest or knowledge.

4. Understanding Subjects The traditional view of a subject . . . is based on bibliographic conventions for representing textual objects. distinguishes between what an object is about and what an object is (i.e., subject description of intellectual content vs. physical description of container or package).

5. Understanding Subjects The traditional view of a subject . . . assumes an object has identifiable intellectual content. Yet subjects are difficult or impossible to identify for a few textual objects and most nontextual objects.

6. Problems in Subject Description Subjective interpretation based on ambiguous, emotional content Domain expertise of person doing subject representation Materials that don’t lend themselves to simple subject representation: "How can nonbook materials, such as visual and musical works, be subject-indexed using the medium of language" --Svenonius 1994, 600

7. Why Distinguish Subject from Physical Description? • To distinguish between work and text • To clarify representations of various kinds of subjects • To provide more access points for searching • To provide intellectual access versus bibliographic access

8. Representing Intellectual Content Topic (content within document) Name Person (as in a biography) Corporate body (as in a prospectus) Geographic area (as in a travel guide) Named entity (about buildings, etc.) Time period (about Renaissance, etc.) Form (literary: poetry, essays) --A. Taylor 1999, 137

9. Representing Physical Object Title (name of object) Name Person (in role such as creator) Corporate body (in role such as creator) Geographic area (as place of origin) Time period (as period made) Form or format (as physical description)

10. Representing Form Usually considered subject description: • Literary forms: poetry, essays • Popular genre: romance (fiction), jazz (music) • Type of info.: correspondence, bibliography, statistics

11. Representing Form Usually considered subject description: • Organization of info: calendar, outline, dictionary • Style or technique related to purpose or audience: comedy, drama, persuasion • Style or technique related to time period: Baroque (music), Impressionism (painting)

12. Representing Format Usually considered physical description: • Physical media format: book, video, photo, map • Artifact format: sculpture, figurine, vase, shirt • Communication mode: text, image, video, audio • Technical digital format: ASCII/text, HTML, .pdf, .gif • Version/part of work: edition, translation, chapter

13. Functions of Subject Descriptions Subject descriptions serve to . . . • Organize document shelving for physical browsing and retrieval • Inform searchers about intellectual contents of documents • Provide consistency of representations • Assist in collection development and acquisitions • Assist in collection maintenance

14. Processes and Products

15. WHAT IS SUBJECT ANALYSIS? Definition • Determining intellectual content or subject content or aboutness Types • Document analysis: information professional (cataloger, indexer) studies document to determine document surrogate for system • Query analysis: information professional (intermediary) or end-user studies user request to determine search terms

16. The Purposes of Subject Analysis • Clarify and organize subjects of docs and queries • Express subjects precisely • Achieve consistency between document and search terms

17. The When of Subject Analysis • During production of primary document Author’s abstract and/or index Indexing commissioned by publisher Cataloging in publication (CIP) • Prior to storage for retrieval Cataloging or indexing by bibliographic utility Cataloging or indexing by individual library • During information retrieval Problem statement or question from user Query formulation by intermediary or user

18. The How of Subject Analysis 1. Familiarization Acquainting oneself with general content of document and query 2. Extraction Identifying, pulling out significant concepts and natural-language terms 3. Translation Converting extracted terms into controlled vocabulary of system 4. Formalization Applying rules for exact format, spelling, punctuation, codes, etc. for input to system

19. The How of Subject Analysis Subject analysis is a balancing act . . . • based on literary warrant (information objects) and on user warrant (user needs) • requiring evaluation and verification at every stage in a continuous, iterative process

20. The Who of Subject Analysis Authors, publishers, catalogers, indexers, abstracters, reviewers Intellectual characteristics: • Precise, orderly and systematic mind • Flair for analysis and intellectual rigor • Critical skills and good judgment • Expert language skills

21. References Svenonius, Elaine. 1994. Access to nonbook materials: The limits of subject indexing for visual and aural languages. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 45, no. 8 (September): 600-606. Taylor, Arlene, G. 1999, 2005. The organization of information. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.