 Subject access in online catalogs: A design modelMarcia J. Bates Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1986, vol. 37, issue 6, 357-376 Abstract: A model based on strikingly different philosophical assumptions from those currently popular is proposed for the design of online subject catalog access. Three design principles are presented and discussed: uncertainty (subject indexing is indeterminate and probabilistic beyond a certain point), variety (by Ashby's law of requisite variety, variety of searcher query must equal variety of document indexing), and complexity (the search process, particularly during the entry and orientation phases, is subtler and more complex, on several grounds, than current models assume). Design features presented are an access phase, including entry and orientation, a hunting phase, and a selection phase. An end‐user thesaurus and a front‐end system mind are presented as examples of online catalog system components to improve searcher success during entry and orientation. The proposed model is “wrapped around” existing Library of Congress subject‐heading indexing in such a way as to enhance access greatly without requiring reindexing. It is argued that both for cost reasons and in principle this is a superior approach to other design philosophies. © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Date: 1986 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamest:v:37:y:1986:i:6:p:357-376 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article More articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science from Association for Information Science & Technology |
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