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Enhancing access to information: Designing catalogs for the 21st century
Infimnatum Ptv~cessing& Management,Vol.33, No. 4, pp. 573-578, 1997 Published by ElsevierScienceLtd Printedin GreatBritain 0306-4573/97 $17 +0.00
Pergamon
BOOK REVIEWS The Art of Abstracting. 2 "d ed. E. T. CRIMMINS. Information Resources Press, Arlington, Vir. (1996). xvii +230 pp., ISBN 0-87815-066-8, $34.95. As the title implies, this is a text that discusses the writing of abstracts. Crimmins presents a three-step analytical reading method, useful for the writing of both informative and indicative abstracts. The three steps involve "exploratory-to-retrieval" reading, designed to "identify passages containing information having potential for retrieval for inclusion in the abstract" (p. 32); "responsive-to-inventive" reading during which the abstractor "responsively rather than reactively" weighs the potential of passages "to be transformed into the abstract" (p. 53); and "connective" or "value-to-meaning" reading of the final draft abstract "to ensure that it contains adequate value and meaning, and, if not, to add more of these qualities to it" (p. 75). Crimmins devotes the last section of the text to an exploration of copyright issues and abstracting as a profession. For each type of reading, Crimmins sets forth specific rules. He illustrates these rules and their application by creating abstracts for two brief articles contained in the book. This is an excellent way to both explain and clarify the meaning and usefulness of the rules and bring the whole abstracting process to life. The intended audience for this text is clearly individuals who are planning to be abstractors. While all authors who are asked to write abstracts for their publications might benefit from this book, few will read it. The use of examples is quite good for students but it would also be useful to have an appendix of sample abstracts (with explanations) for articles available in the published literature. This would allow instructors to use this book as both a textbook and a workbook. Indeed, this might still be produced as a separate teacher's guide. The chief criticisms of The Art of Abstracting involve the selection of material as examples and the overall style of the work. The two articles Crimmins uses as the basis of the abstracts he builds throughout the chapters are hardly representative of the diverse nature of materials typically abstracted. The first is a review of a monograph on models for urban planning rather than a scholarly article on the topic. The second is a scientific article that works well as an example, but nowhere are there any examples of scholarly humanistic or social scientific articles. This is a serious shortcoming as the content and structure of abstracts ranging across these areas is quite different. Finally, although Crimmins provides a patient step-by-step approach, the text at times is tedious and overly long with a good deal of repetition of points. The Art of Abstracting is certainly a text that anyone who is entering the abstracting profession or who is taking a course on abstracting should read. It should, however, be used in conjunction with other texts as its examples present a somewhat limited view of the abstracting domain.
School of Information and Libra,. Science Universi~ of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
HELEN R. TIBBO
Enhancing Access to Information: Designing Catalogs for the 21st Century. D. A. TYCKOSON (Ed.). Haworth Press, New York (1996). xii+243 pp., ISBN 0-7890-6046-9 (Paperback acid-free paper) $24.95.
This review is occasioned by the publication in 1996 of the paperback edition of this monograph, first published in 1991. The 1991 monograph itself was originally published as volume 3, numbers 3 and 4, 1991, of the Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. It is an apparent assumptiou of the publisher that this book is still useful for an unnamed audience as we are now much nearer to the 21st Century. It should be kept in mind that the papers included in this collection were drafted six to seven years ago. This monograph consists of a collection of 13 papers edited by David Tyckoson, and introduced by the editor's provocative think piece, "The Twenty-First Century Limited: Designing Catalogs for the Next 573
574
Book Reviews
Century" (pp. 3-28). The papers are organized into six sub-thematic sections. Tyckoson's paper is the only one in the first section titled, "Past Problems and Present Solutions". The second section, "Enhancements to the Traditional Catalog", contains four papers. The first two papers in the section, by Jim Dwyer ("Bibliographic Records Enhancement: From the Drawing Board to the Catalog Screen", pp. 29-51) and by Richard O. Syracuse and Robert K. Poyer ("Enhancing Access to the Library's Collections: A View from an Academic Health Center Library", pp. 53-90), describe specific efforts to expand catalog access through additional data content, indexing and coverage of a wider variety of materials. The two remaining papers in this section describe methods for enhancing subject access through better subject cataloging ("Of Eggs and Baskets: Getting More Access Out of LC Subject Headings in an Online Environment", by William E. Studwell, pp. 91-96), and ways to improve online catalog displays through better presentation of call numbers and item-specific information ("Getting More Out of Call Numbers: Displaying Holdings, Locations and Circulation Status", by Irving E. Stephens, pp. 97-102). The third section, "Building Better Search Engines", contains only one paper, "The Next Generation of Online Public Access Catalogs: A New Look at Subject Access Using Hyermedia" (pp. ! 03-132),-by Mary Micco. Micco reports on the early stages of a pilot project to study the effectiveness if an experimental hypertext OPAC aided by subject-enriched database records and an improved syndetic structure. The fourth section, "Linking Systems for Remote Access", consists of two papers the first by Bernard G. Sloan, "Remote Access: Design Implications for Access to Catalogs and Databases on the Internet" (pp. 133-140), describes the linked, networked online catalog environment circa 1990, and outlines the challenges presented to system designers by this rapidly evolving complex and diverse environment. The second paper in the section, "User Instruction for Access to Catalogs and Database on the Internet'" (pp. 141-156), by Genevieve Engel, describes the special instruction needs of remote catalog users, with attention to the new challenges users face with the early Internet-based access to online catalogs. The fifth section, "Building the Catalog Through Non-Traditional Databases", contains three reports of database expansion projects. Susan Barnes and Janet McCue describe a project at Cornell which studied the difficulties of linking citations from the BIOSIS and Agricola databases to actual holdings in Cornell's libraries ("Linking Library Records to Bibliographic Databases: An Analysis of Common Data Elements in BIOSIS, Agricola, and the OPAC", pp. 157-187). Richard Harwood reports on a project at Penn State University to catalog and add to the online catalog database a collection of audio-visual materials not held or maintained by the university library (Adding a Nonlibrary Campus Collection to the Library Database", pp. 189-199). The last paper in this section, "Bulk Loading of Records for Microfilm Sets into the Online Catalogue" (pp. 201-209), by Kathy Carter, Hope Olson and Sam Aquila, describes a project at the University of Alberta to add records for major microform sets to the catalog. The sixth and last section, "Systems of Today, Visions of Tomorrow: Enhanced Systems Currently in Operation", contains two papers. The first, "The Georgia Institute of Technology Electronic Library: Issues to Consider" (pp. 211-221), by Amy Dykeman and Julia Zimmerman, describes the multi-year effort at Georgia Tech to expand the early card catalog online by adding twelve commercial databases. The paper separately addresses the public service issues, technical service issues, and collection development issues faced in this expansion effort. The last paper in the collection, "Opening Up Information Access Through the Electronic Catalog" (pp. 223-243), by Pat Molholt and Kathy Forsythe, reports on the development of a campus-wide electronic information system at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in which both commercial databases and previously excluded campus files were added to the library catalog. In addition, the authors describe the development of electronic request functions designed to help patrons obtain physical access to information materials. Most of the papers in this collection describe catalog enhancement projects underway early in this decade. All the papers include suggestions by their authors for improvements to online catalogs through increasing catalog access points or expanding coverage of the collection. Although many of the projects are characterized as "experiments", little science, in the sense of systematic research studies, is reported here, nor is there much in the way of theoretical analysis or discussion. Most of the papers report on "how we are doing it good" at our library. I do not mean to belittle these admirable and conscientious efforts, only to describe them accurately. David Tyckoson's opening think piece sets out both the theme of the collection and its primary objectives. Lamenting that today's library catalogs index and provide access to only a very small percentage (2%?) of the library's holdings, Tyckoson urges us to strive for the Ideal catalog first put forward in the eighteenth century, as "the comprehensive index of the information contained within the library" (p. 26). Thus, theoretically at least, the building of catalogs for the future is viewed by Tyckoson as largely a "restoration" project. With the help of modern electronic information technology, this restoration effort will lead not only to a full-collection access catalog, but will also enable librarians "to regain control over our own information" (p. 16). Aside from the implication that we should proceed "back to the future" (or is it "forward to the past"?),
Book Reviews
575
the attainment of the first goal may be a matter of definition. Is the local library online catalog a single stand-alone system which provides access to the "local" collection, or is it a networked OPAC or information workstation acting as an access gateway to information resources wherever they reside? Not addressed by the papers in this collection is the central issue of whether users care about the format or holding library of the information they want as much as they desire to actually obtain the information when and wherever they need it. And surely the issue of control over our collection information (does this mean the primary publications or the bibliographic surrogates?), an issue of questionable worth in the global information environment, is of concern more to librarians than to patrons. Patrons, I suggest, want both improved, easy access to information and improved delivery mechanisms to get the needed information into their hands. I do not think these goals can be achieved in the future through recaptured control of their local collections by local librarians. Recaptured by whom, librarians of other libraries, or the publishers of databases like Uncover or Current Contents? Among the other shortcomings of this volume, to which I add its dubious timeliness and omission of an index, are those which derive from a conceptual confusion regarding what constitutes an "enhanced" catalog. Most of the papers address only one dimension of improvements to the early online catalogs, that of "expanding" data content and coverage. This reviewer has suggested that it would be useful to define three dimensions of enhancements as we move beyond today's first and second generation online catalogs (Hildreth, 1991). The "E-3-OPAC" would include "expanded" data indexing and collection coverage, "extended" access potential to other collections through linked and networked systems, and "enhanced" search and retrieval functionality. Sadly, only one paper (Micco's) in this collection addresses enhanced search and retrieval functionality. None address usability issues. The two papers on remote access to networked systems provide little discussion of today's Internet-based access, and neither mentions the directory-based access to online catalogs provided by Peter Scott's World Wide Web Hytelnet directory which now includes easy access to "WEBPACs, online catalogs with graphical user interface (GUI), hypertext search and browse capabilities". (On the WEB, see http://library.usask.ca:80/hytelnet/). Even though the last two papers purport to offer visions of tomorrow through systems of today, the reader must look elsewhere to learn about imaginative achievements in enhanced search engines and current research in the design and testing of more effective and usable information retrieval systems, of which our library online catalogs are one species.
REFERENCE Hildreth, C. R. (1991). Advancing toward the E3OPAC: The imperative and the path, 17-38. In: Van Pulis, N. (Ed) Think Tank on the Present and Future of the Online Catalog: Proccedings. (RASD Occasional Papers, Number 9). Reference and Adult Services Division, American Library Association, Chicago. School of Library and Information Studies University of Oklahoma
CHARLES R. HILDRETH
Computation and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices. R. KLING (Ed.) 2nd ed. Academic Press, New York (1996). xxiv+961 pp., ISBN 0-12-415040-3. It is almost an act of folly to try to review a book of almost a thousand pages, with more than seventy essays by diverse hands on eight themes under the general rubric of controversy (any one of which could be, and often has been, the subject of a separate book). All one can do is to provide some clues as to what the compilation is about, what is its purpose, and whether or not it appears to succeed in attaining its objectives. Certainly, it is not designed to be read from cover to cover by anyone--not even a reviewer! As to purpose: the editor (who is also author of all seven essays in Part I, and of the introductory chapter to each of the remaining parts, as well as joint author of two other contributions) is quite explicit: A primary purpose in bringing the various articles together is to help readers recognize the social processes that drive and shape computerization and to help them understand the resulting paradoxes and ironies. (p. xiv) O n e must be grateful for this, since treatment of the social processes, let alone an examination of paradox and irony, is not a particularly strong feature of the computer systems literature. A second purpose is not defined quite so explicitly, but Kling also points out that the specialized nature of some controversies makes the relevant literature inaccessible to the nonspecialist and he has been at pains to find material that cuts across the specialisms of technology
Pergamon
BOOK REVIEWS The Art of Abstracting. 2 "d ed. E. T. CRIMMINS. Information Resources Press, Arlington, Vir. (1996). xvii +230 pp., ISBN 0-87815-066-8, $34.95. As the title implies, this is a text that discusses the writing of abstracts. Crimmins presents a three-step analytical reading method, useful for the writing of both informative and indicative abstracts. The three steps involve "exploratory-to-retrieval" reading, designed to "identify passages containing information having potential for retrieval for inclusion in the abstract" (p. 32); "responsive-to-inventive" reading during which the abstractor "responsively rather than reactively" weighs the potential of passages "to be transformed into the abstract" (p. 53); and "connective" or "value-to-meaning" reading of the final draft abstract "to ensure that it contains adequate value and meaning, and, if not, to add more of these qualities to it" (p. 75). Crimmins devotes the last section of the text to an exploration of copyright issues and abstracting as a profession. For each type of reading, Crimmins sets forth specific rules. He illustrates these rules and their application by creating abstracts for two brief articles contained in the book. This is an excellent way to both explain and clarify the meaning and usefulness of the rules and bring the whole abstracting process to life. The intended audience for this text is clearly individuals who are planning to be abstractors. While all authors who are asked to write abstracts for their publications might benefit from this book, few will read it. The use of examples is quite good for students but it would also be useful to have an appendix of sample abstracts (with explanations) for articles available in the published literature. This would allow instructors to use this book as both a textbook and a workbook. Indeed, this might still be produced as a separate teacher's guide. The chief criticisms of The Art of Abstracting involve the selection of material as examples and the overall style of the work. The two articles Crimmins uses as the basis of the abstracts he builds throughout the chapters are hardly representative of the diverse nature of materials typically abstracted. The first is a review of a monograph on models for urban planning rather than a scholarly article on the topic. The second is a scientific article that works well as an example, but nowhere are there any examples of scholarly humanistic or social scientific articles. This is a serious shortcoming as the content and structure of abstracts ranging across these areas is quite different. Finally, although Crimmins provides a patient step-by-step approach, the text at times is tedious and overly long with a good deal of repetition of points. The Art of Abstracting is certainly a text that anyone who is entering the abstracting profession or who is taking a course on abstracting should read. It should, however, be used in conjunction with other texts as its examples present a somewhat limited view of the abstracting domain.
School of Information and Libra,. Science Universi~ of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
HELEN R. TIBBO
Enhancing Access to Information: Designing Catalogs for the 21st Century. D. A. TYCKOSON (Ed.). Haworth Press, New York (1996). xii+243 pp., ISBN 0-7890-6046-9 (Paperback acid-free paper) $24.95.
This review is occasioned by the publication in 1996 of the paperback edition of this monograph, first published in 1991. The 1991 monograph itself was originally published as volume 3, numbers 3 and 4, 1991, of the Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. It is an apparent assumptiou of the publisher that this book is still useful for an unnamed audience as we are now much nearer to the 21st Century. It should be kept in mind that the papers included in this collection were drafted six to seven years ago. This monograph consists of a collection of 13 papers edited by David Tyckoson, and introduced by the editor's provocative think piece, "The Twenty-First Century Limited: Designing Catalogs for the Next 573
574
Book Reviews
Century" (pp. 3-28). The papers are organized into six sub-thematic sections. Tyckoson's paper is the only one in the first section titled, "Past Problems and Present Solutions". The second section, "Enhancements to the Traditional Catalog", contains four papers. The first two papers in the section, by Jim Dwyer ("Bibliographic Records Enhancement: From the Drawing Board to the Catalog Screen", pp. 29-51) and by Richard O. Syracuse and Robert K. Poyer ("Enhancing Access to the Library's Collections: A View from an Academic Health Center Library", pp. 53-90), describe specific efforts to expand catalog access through additional data content, indexing and coverage of a wider variety of materials. The two remaining papers in this section describe methods for enhancing subject access through better subject cataloging ("Of Eggs and Baskets: Getting More Access Out of LC Subject Headings in an Online Environment", by William E. Studwell, pp. 91-96), and ways to improve online catalog displays through better presentation of call numbers and item-specific information ("Getting More Out of Call Numbers: Displaying Holdings, Locations and Circulation Status", by Irving E. Stephens, pp. 97-102). The third section, "Building Better Search Engines", contains only one paper, "The Next Generation of Online Public Access Catalogs: A New Look at Subject Access Using Hyermedia" (pp. ! 03-132),-by Mary Micco. Micco reports on the early stages of a pilot project to study the effectiveness if an experimental hypertext OPAC aided by subject-enriched database records and an improved syndetic structure. The fourth section, "Linking Systems for Remote Access", consists of two papers the first by Bernard G. Sloan, "Remote Access: Design Implications for Access to Catalogs and Databases on the Internet" (pp. 133-140), describes the linked, networked online catalog environment circa 1990, and outlines the challenges presented to system designers by this rapidly evolving complex and diverse environment. The second paper in the section, "User Instruction for Access to Catalogs and Database on the Internet'" (pp. 141-156), by Genevieve Engel, describes the special instruction needs of remote catalog users, with attention to the new challenges users face with the early Internet-based access to online catalogs. The fifth section, "Building the Catalog Through Non-Traditional Databases", contains three reports of database expansion projects. Susan Barnes and Janet McCue describe a project at Cornell which studied the difficulties of linking citations from the BIOSIS and Agricola databases to actual holdings in Cornell's libraries ("Linking Library Records to Bibliographic Databases: An Analysis of Common Data Elements in BIOSIS, Agricola, and the OPAC", pp. 157-187). Richard Harwood reports on a project at Penn State University to catalog and add to the online catalog database a collection of audio-visual materials not held or maintained by the university library (Adding a Nonlibrary Campus Collection to the Library Database", pp. 189-199). The last paper in this section, "Bulk Loading of Records for Microfilm Sets into the Online Catalogue" (pp. 201-209), by Kathy Carter, Hope Olson and Sam Aquila, describes a project at the University of Alberta to add records for major microform sets to the catalog. The sixth and last section, "Systems of Today, Visions of Tomorrow: Enhanced Systems Currently in Operation", contains two papers. The first, "The Georgia Institute of Technology Electronic Library: Issues to Consider" (pp. 211-221), by Amy Dykeman and Julia Zimmerman, describes the multi-year effort at Georgia Tech to expand the early card catalog online by adding twelve commercial databases. The paper separately addresses the public service issues, technical service issues, and collection development issues faced in this expansion effort. The last paper in the collection, "Opening Up Information Access Through the Electronic Catalog" (pp. 223-243), by Pat Molholt and Kathy Forsythe, reports on the development of a campus-wide electronic information system at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in which both commercial databases and previously excluded campus files were added to the library catalog. In addition, the authors describe the development of electronic request functions designed to help patrons obtain physical access to information materials. Most of the papers in this collection describe catalog enhancement projects underway early in this decade. All the papers include suggestions by their authors for improvements to online catalogs through increasing catalog access points or expanding coverage of the collection. Although many of the projects are characterized as "experiments", little science, in the sense of systematic research studies, is reported here, nor is there much in the way of theoretical analysis or discussion. Most of the papers report on "how we are doing it good" at our library. I do not mean to belittle these admirable and conscientious efforts, only to describe them accurately. David Tyckoson's opening think piece sets out both the theme of the collection and its primary objectives. Lamenting that today's library catalogs index and provide access to only a very small percentage (2%?) of the library's holdings, Tyckoson urges us to strive for the Ideal catalog first put forward in the eighteenth century, as "the comprehensive index of the information contained within the library" (p. 26). Thus, theoretically at least, the building of catalogs for the future is viewed by Tyckoson as largely a "restoration" project. With the help of modern electronic information technology, this restoration effort will lead not only to a full-collection access catalog, but will also enable librarians "to regain control over our own information" (p. 16). Aside from the implication that we should proceed "back to the future" (or is it "forward to the past"?),
Book Reviews
575
the attainment of the first goal may be a matter of definition. Is the local library online catalog a single stand-alone system which provides access to the "local" collection, or is it a networked OPAC or information workstation acting as an access gateway to information resources wherever they reside? Not addressed by the papers in this collection is the central issue of whether users care about the format or holding library of the information they want as much as they desire to actually obtain the information when and wherever they need it. And surely the issue of control over our collection information (does this mean the primary publications or the bibliographic surrogates?), an issue of questionable worth in the global information environment, is of concern more to librarians than to patrons. Patrons, I suggest, want both improved, easy access to information and improved delivery mechanisms to get the needed information into their hands. I do not think these goals can be achieved in the future through recaptured control of their local collections by local librarians. Recaptured by whom, librarians of other libraries, or the publishers of databases like Uncover or Current Contents? Among the other shortcomings of this volume, to which I add its dubious timeliness and omission of an index, are those which derive from a conceptual confusion regarding what constitutes an "enhanced" catalog. Most of the papers address only one dimension of improvements to the early online catalogs, that of "expanding" data content and coverage. This reviewer has suggested that it would be useful to define three dimensions of enhancements as we move beyond today's first and second generation online catalogs (Hildreth, 1991). The "E-3-OPAC" would include "expanded" data indexing and collection coverage, "extended" access potential to other collections through linked and networked systems, and "enhanced" search and retrieval functionality. Sadly, only one paper (Micco's) in this collection addresses enhanced search and retrieval functionality. None address usability issues. The two papers on remote access to networked systems provide little discussion of today's Internet-based access, and neither mentions the directory-based access to online catalogs provided by Peter Scott's World Wide Web Hytelnet directory which now includes easy access to "WEBPACs, online catalogs with graphical user interface (GUI), hypertext search and browse capabilities". (On the WEB, see http://library.usask.ca:80/hytelnet/). Even though the last two papers purport to offer visions of tomorrow through systems of today, the reader must look elsewhere to learn about imaginative achievements in enhanced search engines and current research in the design and testing of more effective and usable information retrieval systems, of which our library online catalogs are one species.
REFERENCE Hildreth, C. R. (1991). Advancing toward the E3OPAC: The imperative and the path, 17-38. In: Van Pulis, N. (Ed) Think Tank on the Present and Future of the Online Catalog: Proccedings. (RASD Occasional Papers, Number 9). Reference and Adult Services Division, American Library Association, Chicago. School of Library and Information Studies University of Oklahoma
CHARLES R. HILDRETH
Computation and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices. R. KLING (Ed.) 2nd ed. Academic Press, New York (1996). xxiv+961 pp., ISBN 0-12-415040-3. It is almost an act of folly to try to review a book of almost a thousand pages, with more than seventy essays by diverse hands on eight themes under the general rubric of controversy (any one of which could be, and often has been, the subject of a separate book). All one can do is to provide some clues as to what the compilation is about, what is its purpose, and whether or not it appears to succeed in attaining its objectives. Certainly, it is not designed to be read from cover to cover by anyone--not even a reviewer! As to purpose: the editor (who is also author of all seven essays in Part I, and of the introductory chapter to each of the remaining parts, as well as joint author of two other contributions) is quite explicit: A primary purpose in bringing the various articles together is to help readers recognize the social processes that drive and shape computerization and to help them understand the resulting paradoxes and ironies. (p. xiv) O n e must be grateful for this, since treatment of the social processes, let alone an examination of paradox and irony, is not a particularly strong feature of the computer systems literature. A second purpose is not defined quite so explicitly, but Kling also points out that the specialized nature of some controversies makes the relevant literature inaccessible to the nonspecialist and he has been at pains to find material that cuts across the specialisms of technology