LAR3651

Information resources: organisation

H M Yee

6 points - 3 hours per week - First semester - Caulfield - Prohibitions: IMS5017, LAR4651

Objectives At the conclusion of the subject students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of selected aspects of organising information resources for effective retrieval, including types of recorded information and of information retrieval contexts, covering both analogue (eg print) and digital (eg Web compound documents); examination of the relative merits of controlled-vocabulary and relevance-ranking approaches to indexing, applying concepts such as consistency, exhaustivity, specificity, recall and precision, and input-output trade-offs; record structures, and the need for consistency and controls with respect to the order and formatting of fields and sub-fields, and metadata, including names, titles, and subject terms; how indexing and abstracting principles are applied in published finding tools, both analogue and digital, eg Chemical Abstracts, Australian Education Index; how cataloguing and classification principles are applied in libraries; the main reasons for, and steps in, the construction of specialised thesauri and classification schemes; use of a range of general and specialist cataloguing, classification and indexing tools, standards and platforms, eg AACR2, LCSH, DDC, USMARC, ABN, Dublin Core, Australian Thesaurus of Education Descriptors.

Synopsis This subject introduces students to the principles, fundamental concepts, and standards for intellectual access to information resources. In particular, the subject will deal with standards governing description, distribution and access to information at the local and global levels, with respect to AACR2, subject headings lists, indexing and thesaurus construction, classification schemes, MARC and the Dublin Core metadata. It examines the effects of economic, social and technological factors on the development of bibliographic networks and cataloguing operations. Practical sessions will deal with the application and use of major bibliographic tools and utilities for organising records on a bibliographic network.

Assessment 3 practical assignments using cataloguing tools: 50% - Successful completion of hands-on experience of online cataloguing: 20% - Examination (3 hours): 30%

Prescribed texts

All students will be expected to have reliable access to the Anglo-American cataloguing rules 2nd rev. edn or later. Access to other tools will be provided as needed (in hard copy, on disc or online), eg DDC, LCSH and LCSH, subdivisions section from the ABN cataloguing manual, and manuals/notes on USMARC and ABN MARC coding formats.

Recommended texts

Foskett A C The subject approach to information 5th edn, Library Association, 1996
Kennedy J and Schauder C Records management 2nd edn, Addison-Wesley, 1997
Rowley J E Organising knowledge 2nd edn, Gower 1993
Wynar B Introduction to cataloging and classification 8th edn, Libraries Unlimited, 1992

Back to the 1999 Information Technology Handbooks