Discussion Question

This was my response to this weeks discussion question, which asked us to describe in plain language a concept that we had difficulty with in this weeks reading: I had a bit of trouble with the Types of Indexing. I don't necessarily think that it is a hard concept, but for some reason the text just did not make any sense to me. So, derivative indexing uses keywords taken from the document, while assignment indexing uses a controlled vocabulary. For example, in a cookbook a recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake using derivative indexing would be listed under keywords taken from the recipe, like chocolate, raspberries, sugar, flour, cream etc. The same recipe in an assignment index would use a controlled vocabulary determined by a person and may list the recipe under desserts, chocolate desserts, fruit desserts, etc. Both types of indexing have their drawbacks, for instance listing Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake under the ingredient sugar would be problematic as sugar is a popular ingredient in many recipes. Also, listing using a controlled vocabulary can be confusing since an actual person is choosing what to list the recipe under and what one person or group of people choose may not what everyone thinks of, for instance I would not look for Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake under fruit desserts. Both types have thier advantages as well. Using derivative indexing Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake would most likely be listed under Chocolate which would be helpful when looking it up in an index. Using the assignment index Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake would probably be listed under Cakes (depending on the controlled vocabulary) which again, would be very helpful when searching for it in an index.

Related blog

I had some difficulty with this. I used Google blog search and I actually have three blogs that I am linking to. This first is http://brooklynhistory.org/blog/tag/archiving-women/ I found this post quite interesting as my background is in Women's history and I would love to combine my two degree and work in archiving Women's history or at a Women's library. The second is http://www.historytodaymagazine.blogspot.com/2010/01/first-archive-centre-to-combine.html, again, this project sounds fascinating and I'd love to work in this field. "Bringing together material held by Hull City Archives, Hull Local Studies Library and Hull University Archives, the centre is the first in the country to combine university and local authority archives" This quote from the article sums it up for me, I'd love to be involved in helping to preserve not only academic libraries, but also city libraries. I guess I still haven't made a decision yet on which one I'd really like to do. The third is this http://www.catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/. I thought this blog was much more library oriented than the others. The description 'Thoughts about the future of libraries and the catalog" I think that relates to my blog since I am also interested in the future of libraries. The post for January 15th is particularly interesting, since it links to an article about the future of academic libraries. I'll probably end up following all three blogs this semester because I think all of them may have some interesting topics.

Initial Post

113 days (aproximatley), 14 modules, 10 competencies, one semester. The purpose of this blog is to explore concepts related to Information Storage and Retrieval for students of Library Science. What I am interested in, mainly, is archiving and research in a University Library setting or perhaps something in the Public Library, at this point in time I am not 100% sure. For this class I am going to choose the University Library setting, I will make a big picture decision later.