Friday, August 05, 2005

The July 2005 issue of Library Resources & Technical Services (incidentally, you can request a sample issue from here, http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/alctspubs/librestechsvc/Default2594.htm) has an excellent article on "Promoting Research and Best Practice in Subject Reference Structures:  A Decade of Work by the Subject Analysis Committee" by David Miller, Tony Olson, and Sara Shatford Layne. The article clearly identifies some major studies documenting the success of controlled vocabularies for searching, and delves into the many reasons for the failure of subject searches in catalogs including the failure of automated systems to fully use existing reference structures.  This is an invaluable read for all those interested in the issues surrounding subject access to the literature.    comment []9:47:03 PM

© Copyright 2005 Anita S. Coleman. Last update: 9/2/2005; 8:05:21 PM.