Machine translation and author keywords: A viable search strategy for scholars with limited English proficiency?

Author keywords are valuable for indexing articles and for information retrieval (IR). Most scientific literature is published in English. Can machine translation (MT) help researchers with limited English proficiency to search for information? We used two MT systems (Google Translate, DeepL Translator) to translate into English 71 Spanish keywords and 43 French keywords from articles in the domain of Library and Information Science. We then used the English translations to search the Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA) database. Half of the translated keywords returned relevant results. Of the half that did not, 34% were well translated but did not align with LISTA descriptors. Translation-related problems stemming from orthographic variation, synonymy, differing syntactic preferences, and semantic field coverage interfered with IR in just 16% of cases. Some of the MT errors are relatively “predictable” and if knowledge organization systems could be augmented to deal with them, then MT may prove even more useful for searching.

A linguistic analysis of user-generated book reviews: Truthful, deceiving or influential?

This study presents an analysis of 474,803 unique Goodreads reviews of the top-rated books in 2014. Studies of user-generated reviews have considered a range of issues, including analysis of what makes a review helpful.

Synthetic Classification and Diverse Communities

This brief paper argues that a synthetic approach to classification can alleviate all of the major concerns that are commonly raised about how Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) may disserve various communities. It surveys how a synthetic approach can potentially address a variety of concerns regarding KOSs and social diversity.

Contextual Classification at Out On The Shelves Library

Out On The Shelves is Vancouver’s only Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Two-Spirit, Queer, Intersex, Aromantic/Asexual (LGBT2QIA+) library. Due to recent organizational changes, it has become apparent that its current classification system is no longer working effectively. Not only was the previous system unstructured and confusing, it failed to explicitly represent many aspects of the community it serves. This project was undertaken during the summer of 2018, researching alternative classification and queer issues in knowledge organization to determine how to improve it. This research, combined with careful consideration of the needs of the library itself and its users, suggested that building a local, contextually-situated, classification system would be best. A new classification system has been built for Out On The Shelves Library, and will be implemented in several stages beginning in October 2018, with the end goal to be finished by the end of December 2018. The new system intends to be living and changeable, one that lays bare its structures and decisionmaking processes while centering and celebrating the LGBT2QIA+ community and working within the realities of being a small, unfunded, volunteer-run, public library.

Community-Driven Knowledge Organization for Cultural Heritage Digital Libraries: The Case of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region

The Inuvialuit Digital Library (https://inuvialuitdigitallibrary.ca/) was developed as part of the Digital Library North Project, a four-year collaboration to develop a digital library infrastructure to support preservation of and access to cultural resources in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in north western Canada. In this paper, we present the methodologies and approaches used in the development of a culturally appropriate metadata and description framework for the digital library. Specifically, we address soliciting community involvement for building knowledge organization systems, culturally appropriate feedback mechanisms for correcting knowledge organization practices, and deciding who will create the structure and format of knowledge organization systems. Specific practical considerations and decisions on culturally appropriate metadata elements are discussed, in particular such description and design elements as subjects, contributors and roles, language and dialects, geographic names and user interface functionalities.

The Critical Catalog: Giving Voice to Diverse Library Materials through Provocative Design

Although laudable strides have been made to highlight and provide access to diverse library materials about and made by traditionally marginalized communities, current approaches are curatorial, non-scalable, and non-systematic. Using a critical design approach, we address how libraries might move beyond curatorial practices with the proposal of a “Critical Catalog” that advocates for diverse materials and discusses the problems and challenges of categorizing identity. The proposed provocative catalog offers the possibility to raise awareness of diverse library materials; expose readers to new and different resources, ideas and cultures; alter reading habits; and ultimately provide more equitable representation by preventing the inadvertent and unintentional erasure of diverse library materials, thus giving a stronger voice to marginalized communities.

A Cross-cultural Comparison of Medical Science Subject Classification in the KDC and the DDC

This study reports the preliminary results of a cross-cultural comparison of Medical Science in the Korean Decimal Classification (KDC) and in the Dewy Decimal Classification (DDC). Despite having similar purposes, to serve the public and emphasize the significance of standardization in medical science, a comparison of the two classification systems shows the influences of social and cultural inferences of classification systems in medicine.

Examining Communities in the Transdisciplinary Area of Cognitive Science: Automatic Classification for Examining Communities in the Web of Science Using Unsupervised Clustering Methods

We propose methodology for examining classification to identify and make explicit community perspectives that are neglected by traditional journal-subject classification in order to provide a more flexible and customizable classification system. Our method is based on keyword matches, and is applied to the broad transdisciplinary area of cognitive science. In the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) classification, the classification of journals places each journal into a silo based on pre-determined categories deemed appropriate to demonstrate the relatedness of journals. Classification at the journal level does not necessarily represent the perspectives of a community, as a community in both membership and topical scope may transcend the bounds of a single journal classification. Our approach is novel because we examine topics within the transdisciplinary domain of cognitive science, and within that domain, we identify community perspectives on the conceptual contents as found in the titles of publications in the WoS.

Integrating Practical and Epistemic Actors: Co-Constructing a Knowledge Organization System to Address Housing Insecurity in West Philadelphia

In response to colonial legacies of divisiveness and paternalism underpinning the development of knowledge organization systems (KOS) and thus impeding their appeal, accessibility, and usefulness to diverse stakeholders (Castleden, Morgan, and Lamb, 2012), this case study explores the challenges and opportunities inherent to the design of a malleable, sustainable KOS as part of an mHealth tool called Map the Gap. Map the Gap intends to reduce the burden of housing insecurity in West Philadelphia. By examining the active cultivation of communal ties between the “epistemic” and “practical” actors (Callon, 4, 2004) who substantiate Map the Gap, as well as the sociotechnical infrastructure which shapes and is shaped by such ties, the processes of collaboration underpinning functionality decisions are delineated. This paper reflects on the way KOS sociotechnical structures defy and challenge traditional academic and community models of research and development, thus requiring a unique, temporally-conscious embracement of select and dynamic collaborations. By elucidating and evaluating the considerations and practices central to Map the Gap, we seek to yield a template for cultivating healthy KOS sociotechnical structures.

Local Authorial Voice and Global Authorial Voice in Community-Authored Knowledge Organization Systems

Folksonomies are crowdsourced knowledge organization systems that rose to popularity during Web 2.0 and that are still actively used today. This crowdsourced approach to knowledge organization moves authorial voice from an individual expert or small group of experts to the community. What does it mean to have many voices contribute to a knowledge organization system? Do community members create a collective authorial voice? Are minority opinions more readily included? How does access to information, especially “long tail” information, change? This paper explores these questions by examining authorial voice in community-authored knowledge organization systems (CAKOS) and expert-authored knowledge organization systems (EAKOS).