University of Washington: ResearchWorks Journal Hosting
Not a member yet
5604 research outputs found
Sort by
Domain analysis, an important part of thesaurus construction.
Get PDFDesign and construction of index languages should be based on thorough knowledge and understanding of the environment of the information system and its users. This study investigates a mixed set of methods (group interviews and word association to collect data, content analysis and discourse analysis to analyze data) to evaluate whether these methods together collect the data required for user-oriented thesaurus construction. Based on a case study we find that the three studies together provide the needed domain knowledge to define the role of the thesaurus and design the content. The analysis also provided conceptual knowledge and prepared for the next step, collecting and analyzing concepts and tenns, thus saving resources in the construction process. In sum, the domain study made it possible to design a thesaurus reflecting the work environment and its users
Accessing and browsing 3D anatomical images with a navigational ontology.
Get PDFThe problem that our research addresses is the lack of a comprehensive, universally useful system for navigating 3D images ofanatomical structures. In this paper we discuss the organization of anatomical information in a navigational ontology, a knowledge representation formalism that supports intelligent browsing of 3D anatomical images. For the purposes ofthis project, 'intelligent' means that the computer system behaves as if it had accurate knowledge of human anatomy consistent with that of a trained anatomist (though not necessarily as complete). To give a simple example, if the user asks to see the component structures of the urinary system, the system will return to the user either a list of structures and/or a model of them, just as an anatomy instructor might do. The Vesalius Anatomy Browser provides an interface for navigating 3D anatomical images in which anatomical images are linked to a hierarchical representation of conceptual information that corresponds directly to the images displayed on the screen. The association of the concepts with images makes possible simultaneous visual exploration of anatomical information via word and image
Knowledge organization scheme for cross-cultural and cross-language information systems. A discussion of issues and challenges.
Get PDFThe purpose of our presentation is two-fold:First, to describe the significant challenges that have been encountered in a project to form a general conceptual framework to cover concepts and terminology used for information retrieval in the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Second, to initiate a discussion and seek advice regarding developing a knowledge organization schema for cross-culture information systems
Automatic concept hierarchies development: A revised subsumption approach.
Get PDFIn this study, the original subsumption rule proposed by Sanderson and Croft is revised. Different thresholds are used to observe how shapes of a concept hierarchy change. Ranking among children concepts is available based on sorted subsumption data. This study also explores three potential usages of concept hierarchies. 1. As an overview to a document collection 2. As a tool to compare different document collections in the same domain 3. As a tool to observe evolution trends in a domai
Interfaces for understanding: Improving access to consumer health information.
Get PDFThis research will examine how health care consumers use a prototype interface that supports understanding and defining information problems through visual exploration of the medical domain (relationships among medical concepts and functional relationships in the human body)
Soviet classifications and situated knowledges
Get PDFThe most recent literature on systemic bias in classification has focused on how to most responsibly handle the bias that is inevitable in knowledge organization, rather than on eliminating it altogether. On the foundation of Donna Haraway’s work on situated knowledges, Feinberg has argued for multiple knowledge domains of acknowledged perspectives and care on the classificationist’s part for the rhetorical argument advanced by his classification; Mai has argued for the citation of cognitive authorities in classification work. These are all solutions which were implemented for ideological purposes in the Soviet library and bibliographic classifications created in the first half of the twentieth century. Far from producing responsible or accountable classifications, however, the Soviet classifications were one more layer of thought control in the all-encompassing totalitarian state, leading to the conclusion that it is not simply acknowledging bias which makes a classification responsible, but doing so in an open society where individuals are free to choose between systems of knowledge organization and to interrogate those with which they disagree
Biases in knowledge representation: an analysis of the feminine domain in Brazilian indexing languages
Get PDFThe process of knowledge representation, as well as its tools and resulting products are not neutral but permeated by moral values. This scenario gives rise to problems of biases in representation, such as gender issues, dichotomy categorizations and lack of cultural warrant and hospitality. References on women’s issues are still scarce in the literature, which makes it necessary to analyze to what extent the terms related to these particular issues are inserted in the tools in a biased
way. This study aimed to verify the presence of the terms female, femininity, feminism, feminist, maternal, motherly, woman/women within the following Brazilian indexing languages: Subject Terminology of the National Library (STNL), University of Sao Paulo Subject Headings (USPSH), Brazilian Senate Subject Headings (BSSH) and Law Decimal Classification (LDC). Each term identified in the first three alphabetical languages generated a registration card containing both its descriptors and non-descriptors, as well as scope notes, USE/UF, RT, and BT/NT relationships. As for the analysis of LDC, the registration card was filled out by following the categories proposed by Olson (1998). The results showed signs of biases, which enabled the proposition of guidelines that
may contribute to minimize them and open the way for further discussions
RDA and RDF: A discourse analysis of two standards of resource description
Get PDFThe World Wide Web Consortium’s Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the library community’s new cataloguing standard, Resource Description and Access (RDA), both profess to provide sophisticated and flexible means of describing resources for modern Web environments. But both have attracted scepticism from potential users, who argue that their supposed innovations are overrated. A comparison of the two standards using Michel Foucault’s theory of discourse formations suggests that while the two standards differ in their community contexts and their use of intermediaries, they are similar to each other in their commitment to consistent, rigorously-defined entities and relationships; this shared commitment sets them apart from Web 2.0 developments, and offers the potential for fruitful
collaboration
Tensions Between Language and Discourse in North American Knowledge Organization
Get PDFThis paper uses Paul Ricoeur's distinction between language and discourse to help define a North American research agenda in knowledge organization. Ricoeur's concept of discourse as a set of utterances, defined within multiple disciplines and domains, and reducible, not to the word but to the sentence, provides three useful tools for defining our research. First, it enables us to recognize the important contribution of numerous studies that focus on acts of organization, rather than on standards or tools of organization. Second, it gives us a harmonious paradigm that helps us reconcile the competing demands of interoperability, based on widely-used tools and techniques of library science, and domain integrity, based on user warrant and an understanding of local context. Finally, it resonates with the current economic, political and social climate in which our information systems work, particularly the competing calls for protectionism and globalization
Performance works: Continuing to comprehend instantiation
Get PDFMuch work in knowledge organization (KO) is conceptual, which results in a theoretical framework that is itself largely conceptual. In some cases empirical methods have been employed as well for direct observation of phenomena. Direct observation provides a critical base point and a variety of empirical approaches have been used to good effect in KO. The phenomenon of instantiation has been examined to date almost entirely based on the analysis of data derived from empirical analysis. In the present paper we demonstrate the efficacy of the empirical model for category generation by taking one category of instantiation—the performance work—and submitting it to analytical scrutiny. Data from three analytical studies are reviewed and placed alongside evidence from datasets gathered for prior studies on instantiation. A performance work is realized in space and time, and thus exists spatiotemporally. The performance work might be derived from a precedent work, related to other works that are embedded, have adjunct documentation, and be accompanied by antecedent works. A naïve classification is derived empirically, a model follows rationally, and together with semiotic elements a partial typology is generated that represents the essential knowledge elements from which a KO schema for performance works might evolve