What have we got to lose? The effect of controlled vocabulary on keyword searching results

College and Research Libraries

Volumn 66, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 212-230

  Gross, Tina ^a   Taylor, Arlene G ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 27944470862     PISSN: 00100870     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5860/crl.66.3.212     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Ruth French Strout, "The Development of the Catalog and Cataloging Codes," Library Quarterly 26 (Oct. 1956): 267-68.
2. Karen Markey, Subject Searching in Library Catalogs: Before and After the Introduction of Online Catalogs (Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, 1984).
3. Ray R. Larson, "The Decline of Subject Searching: Long-term Trends and Patterns of Index Use in an Online Catalog," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 41 (Apr. 1991): 207.
4. Jennifer Rowley, "The Controlled versus Natural Indexing Languages Debate Revisited: A Perspective on Information Retrieval Practice and Research," Journal of Information Science 20, no. 2 (1994): 108-19.
5. Joy Tillotson, "Is Keyword Searching the Answer?" College & Research Libraries 56 (May 1995): 199-206.
6. Joy Tillotson, College & Research Libraries 56 ( 1995): Ibid., 203.
7. Monica Cahill McJunkin, "Precision and Recall in Title Keyword Searches," Information Technology and Libraries 14 (1995): 161-71.
8. Monica Cahill McJunkin, Information Technology and Libraries 14 ( 1995): Ibid., 170.
9. Arlene G. Taylor, "On the Subject of Subjects," Journal of Academic Librarianship 21, no. 6 (Nov. 1995): 484-90.
10. Brendan J. Wyly, "From Access Points to Materials: A Transaction Log Analysis of Access Point Value for Online Catalog Users," Library Resources & Technical Services 40, no. 3 (July 1996): 211-36.
11. Brendan J. Wyly, Library Resources & Technical Services 40, no. 3 ( 1996): Ibid., 214.
12. Charles R. Hildreth, "The Use and Understanding of Keyword Searching in a University Online Catalog," Information Technology and Libraries 16 (June 1997): 52-62.
13. Charles R. Hildreth, Information Technology and Libraries 16 ( 1997): Ibid., 61.
14. Henk J. Voorbij, "Title Keywords and Subject Descriptors: A Comparison of Subject Search Entries of Books in the Humanities and Social Sciences," Journal of Documentation 54, no. 4 (Sept. 1998): 466-76.
15. Henk J. Voorbij, Journal of Documentation 54, no. 4 ( 1998): Ibid., 470-75.
16. 2 = 216.09. Because the total number of unique searches (2,270) divided by the desired sample size (216.09) came out to 10.5, we decided for simplicity's sake to select every tenth unique search for the sample, although this made the sample size slightly larger than it needed to be to achieve 95% confidence and a 4% margin of error.
17. Search performed in 2004 after inception of TOC enhancements to PittCat.
18. Rowley, "The Controlled versus Natural Indexing Language Debate Revisited," 114;
19. Tillotson, "Is Keyword Searching the Answer," 199;
20. McJunkin, "Precision and Recalling title Keyword Searches," 163;
21. Hildreth, "The Use and Understanding of Keyword Searching in a University Online Catalog," 61.
22. Steve Jones et al., "A Transaction Log Analysis of a Digital Library," International Journal on Digital Libraries 3, no. 2 (2000): 155-56.
23. Voorbij, "Title Keywords and Subject Descriptors," 475-76.