1. Pre-coordinate vs Post-coordinate Subject Access: Pros and Cons and a Real Life Experience… Peter Fletcher, University of California, Los Angeles Diane L. Boehr, National Library of Medicine June 27, 2016 Sponsor: Cataloging & Metadata Management Section Co-Sponsor: CaMMS Faceted Subject Access Interest Group #alctsAC16

2. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee Pre-vs Post-Coordinate Subject Access Pros and Cons June 27, 2016 Peter Fletcher UCLA Cataloging & Metadata Center

3. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee Pre-vs. Post Coordinate: Some Background Post-Coordinate: “Each term included in a controlled vocabulary should represent a single concept (or unit of thought)” * “Relationships among terms … are indicated by semantic linking” *ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005. Guidelines for the construction, format, and management of monolingual controlled vocabularies June 27, 2016 ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

4. Pre-vs. Post Coordinate: Some Background Post-Coordinate: Terms representing single concepts Cathedrals Stained Glass Flying Buttresses Thesaurus: semantic linking Vertebrates NT: Mammals Ships RT: Boats Aves USE: Birds ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

5. Pre-vs. Post Coordinate: Some Background Post-coordinate: an example PRECIS (PREserved Context Index System) Consists of two parts: syntactic and thesaural Is both pre-coordinate and post-coordinate June 27, 2016 ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

6. Pre-vs. Post Coordinate: Some Background PRECIS as an example Scotland Adult education. Role of public libraries Adult education. Scotland Role of public libraries Public libraries. Scotland Role in adult education June 27, 2016ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

7. Pre-vs. Post Coordinate: Some Background LCSH (Pre-coordinate): Combat in the bible Adult children of alcoholics, Writings of Aid to families with dependent children programs United States—History—Civil War, 1961-1865 Nervous system

8. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee LC Report (2007): Pre- vs. Post-Coordinate “Pre-coordinated strings have a sophisticated syntax that can express concepts better than single words…” “Post-coordinated terms have serious limitations for recall, precision, understanding, and relevance ranking.” Elaine Svenonious: “context (precoordination) is needed for disambiguation, suggestibility, and precision” June 27, 2016

9. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee LC Report (2007): Pre- vs. Post-Coordinate LCSH legacy “The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are by far the most widely adopted subject indexing language in the world. Since 1898 LCSH has provided a set of terms for a comprehensive, broad range of topics. LCSH has been translated into many languages and is used around the world by libraries large and small.” June 27, 2016

10. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee Post-coordinate is better? LCSH is not a thesaurus Structural soundness is important for the construction of a thesaurus

11. Another LCSH (pre-coordination) limitation? “The compound or complex nature of many individual topical terms in LCSH, such as “Cookery, Indic” and “Absurd (Philosophy) in literature” causes difficulties for the development of clean, consistent faceted interfaces because the component parts cannot be manipulated individually.” June 27, 2016ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

12. Fully Faceted Syntax for LCSH? Inconsistent syntax of LCSH Use Bliss Classification facets June 27, 2016

13. Fully Faceted Syntax for LCSH? Use Bliss Classification facets. For example: Topical: “thing/entity” (objects, persons, institutions, texts) “kind” (kinds of things/entities) Non-topical (features): approach (methodological approach, point of view, etc.); format Etc., etc. June 27, 2016ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

14. Fully Faceted Syntax for LCSH? LCSH: Adult children of alcoholics, Writings of How many facets? June 27, 2016ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

15. Some things to ponder

16. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee Some things to ponder Do we keep instructing new catalogers how to construct LCSH if library users generally do not take advantage of the pre-coordinated structure? With the advent of linked data, will it be necessary to have identifiers linked to single-concept terms within a logical rule-based structure? June 27, 2016

17. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee In Summary Post-CoordinatePre-Coordinate (LCSH) ProConProCon Consistent thesaural structure No broadly established system Legacy, broadly established System Inconsistent thesaural structure Context provided via operators/syntax Too Complex?Headings provide context More machine actionable Less Machine actionable Better for linked data Not optimal for linked data

18. ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee F. H. Ayres: Time for Change: a new approach to cataloguing concepts “Cataloguing, now a precoordinated function should shift to a post-coordinate activity” “…cataloguers must accept is that the searching process must be user driven.” June 27, 2016

19. Sources Library of Congress Subject Headings: Pre- vs. Post-Coordination and Related Issues. Report for Beacher Wiggins, Director, Acquisitions & Bibliographic Access Directorate, Library Services, Library of Congress Prepared by the Cataloging Policy and Support Office, March 15, 2007 James D. Anderson DLS & Melissa A. Hofmann MLIS (2006) A Fully Faceted Syntax for Library of Congress Subject Headings, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 43:1,7-38 ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005. Guidelines for the construction, format, and management of monolingual controlled vocabularies June 27, 2016ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee

20. More sources Kelley McGrath. Facet-Based Search and Navigation With LCSH: Problems and Opportunities, Code4Lib Journal, Issue 1, 2007-12-17 Mary Dykstra. “LC Subject Headings Disguised as a Thesaurus” Library Journal. 1988. Volume: 113. Issue: 4 F. H. Ayres (2000) Time for Change: A New Approach to Cataloguing Concepts, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 28:2, 3-16 Mary Dykstra (1989) PRECIS in the Online Catalog, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 10:1-2, 81-94 Yasar Tonta. LCSH and PRECIS in Library and Information Science: A Comparative Study. University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science Occasional Papers, Number 194 May 1992

21. Thank You June 27, 2016ALCTS, CaMMS, Subject Analysis Committee