Information Retrieval Systems: thoughts on Boolean Search

So I'm taking a challenging (for me) course this term with lots of great subjects for thought. This week we are looking at Boolean Search (AND, OR, NOT statements). The prof wanted to know if we used it and in what situations we don't use it.

I said that I used Boolean when searching a library catalog or database for things that I knew existed, and that I use keyword relevancy searching for things that I don't know whether they exist because Boolean searching is difficult when looking for a document in which there is some doubt as to its existence, or there is doubt in the appropriate terms.

For example, just this week I had a library patron who wanted "the book by Laura Ingels about the demise of culture with the catchy funny title. She's a national commentator and was just interviewed about the book." It turned out that using Google's keyword search "laura funny culture book" (and not a Boolean search in the catalog) was the perfect way to find the book, which was by Laura Ingraham and titled Of Thee I Zing. The Google result which answered the query was an Amazon page of the book which (I guess) pulled together Laura from the author name, culture from the title, and funny from the reviews.

I also looked at another question of the prof's which was about controlled vocabulary and expecting users to know what they are looking for (at least in terms of the specific words they use to search). I think it's fair to expect some level of responsibility on the part of the user for learning the vocabulary of their search need. So if a user is searching a specific microcosm of information (say a health database), I have no problem recommending that the user become as familiar as possible with the language of her search (such as by browsing the controlled vocab/ thesaurus), in order to consciously craft a search using general or specific terms, preferred terms or natural language and understand how the difference in the terms chosen will affect the types of documents and the relevance of the documents returned.

However, I especially like Saracevic's third powerful idea about information science, that of "interaction, enabling direct exchanges and feedback between systems and people engaged in IR processes." (p. 1052) If the system is designed for interaction, then the user might be able to define more precise queries through computer prompting of related keywords. Sort of a brainstorming session with the computer.

Saracevic, T. (1999). "Information science." Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 50(12), 1051-1063.

Lista de Libros leidos el Verano 2011

Este verano decedí que no tomaría clases de biblioteca para pasar unos meses con mi familia. Tambien he tenido la oportunidad de leer unos libros- algunos pensativos, otros simplemente pura diversión. Leí algunos que me parecieron digno de poner unas palabras "al papel," pero no sabía si debería escribir una crítica aquí o en LibraryThing...

Lo que me gustó de los libros era el elemento de realismo y la verdad a la experiencia de vida que representaron.
Los títulos:

• The Elephant Keeper- escrito por Christopher Nicholson, que me rompío la corazón y a veces preferiría no leerlo
• Catfish Alley- escrito por Lynne Bryant, bien hecho libro de la vida del sur de los EEUU y reflejó la cultura de ignorance deliberado de cómo la historia todavía nos toca (por razón de leer éste libro, todavía no he leído "The Help"
• Impossible- escrito por Nancy Werlin, bien dificil de hacer un resumen- mejor leer el libro
• Fairy Bad Day- escrito por Amanda Ashby- okei, ésto leí por pura diversión : )

I Just Created a Local Installation of WordPress!

I have given myself a summer project to create a video catalog using WordPress and either the Dublin Core metadata scheme or a subset of the scheme created by Rutgers University for their OpenMIC cataloging software. I'm working with Kinetic Illusions to catalog both their raw video files and their completed project files to describe the raw files based on subject matter, geographic location, time of year, etc and describe which raw files were used in which completed projects.

So one step of the project is to figure out how Kinetic will use the database and what metadata elements are of upmost importance.

As Kinetic is planning to create a WordPress version of their website, and is the software of choice for their web services, and as I saw that Library Technology Reports published the Using WordPress as a Library Content Management System report, I thought creating the catalog using WP would be a good project. Only problem is... I don't do WordPress.

So I'm reading Lisa Sabin-Wilson's WordPress All-in-One for Dummies and the steps are very clear, however she doesn't cover creating a local installation, meaning on my computer, rather than on the web, which is her assumption. So I had to go find software which would recreate the online environment that WordPress requires. Namely I needed a database and a server. As I use a Mac, I discovered MAMP: Mac Apache mySQL PHP. (I don't remember exactly how, I must have googled "wordpress local installation Mac.")

Now, I'm seriously superstitious about getting things to work, so I desperately searched for some step by step instructions for installing said MAMP 1.9.6 and WP 3.2.1. The following youtube video was created using slightly older versions of the software, but it was mostly the same.

I followed these instructions step by step and successfully installed WordPress! Needless to say, much celebration insued as I am not tech architecture savvy, but that's why they created the helpful software. Thanks, local community for sharing your resources and your knowledge!

Now back to the for Dummies book.

Stuff I Saw I Thought was Cool in the ALA11 Stacks

Here is a list of the stuff that I picked up information on in the Stacks, so that I may now recycle the paper and keep the list electronically in perpetuity!!!!!

• iimageretrieval
• e-scan scanning station
• CopiBook scanning station
• Open Repository- a commercial consultant/ service provider for customizing the open source product DSpace
• The Horn Book Magazine- yeah, I've seen it on magazine stands, but never looked at one.
• Library Advocate's Handbook- put together by the Office of Library Advocacy OLA
• Unshelved- the comic about libraries
• the Knowledge Imaging Centers (scanners) at Image Access- these things are amazing! They typically use a V cradle to hold the book by the cover/spine rather than have the customer put the book pages down and smash the spine. The particular model you choose depends on the application, from the size of the document scanned to whether it is for library users to scan documents.
• KIC Bookeye 4, Bookeye 2
• KIC Rebel (B4C6 Color Scanner/ Copier ? I wonder if this is its technical term)
• KIC BookEdge Color Scanner/ Copier
• G. T. Labs Comics about scientists. The cover art looked great, which is what induced me to pick up the the handout:
• T Minus
• Levitation
• Wire Mothers
• Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards
• Suspended in Language
• Fallout
• Dignifying Science: Stories about Women Scientists
• Two Fisted Science
• Academic Video Online by Alexander Street Press

This is the list thus far. I'm a bit tired looking through these, so I'll do a part two later.