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Structure of the Indexing Language

Suitability for the LEMoN Armoury * Type of Indexing Language and
Pre-coordinate Headings vs. Post Co-ordinate Retrievial
Forms of Terms
Relationship Structures
Precision / Recall * Specificity * Exhaustivity * Weight of Aboutness vs. Meaning

*Precision/recall
Precision refers to the ability of a search system to retrieve relevant content objects (ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 8).  This can be expressed by determining the ratio of relevant content items to the total number of items retrieved.  The LAT supports high precision through term specificity.  Specialized terminology has been included in the thesaurus as a way to point to certain documents and descriptions in the LEMoN Armoury’s electronic database.  Additionally, we anticipate that the search system used in conjunction with the LEMoN Armoury database would support Boolean operators, thus giving system users the opportunity to combine terms to narrow results.  For instance, a customer may wish to consider the flex and overall length of a falchion before deciding whether to purchase it.  The three preferred terms used here – “flex,” “overall length,” and “falchion” can be combined in various ways to retrieve relevant product descriptions.

Recall refers to the ability of a search system to retrieve as many relevant content objects that exist in the underlying database (ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 8).  In theory, this percentage is determined by dividing the number of relevant retrieved documents by the total number of relevant documents in the database.  Recall would be supported in the LEMoN Armoury’s search system via truncation and proximity matches between entered terms.  We feel that these are important characteristics to incorporate, since the specificity of terms in the LAT could make exact-match searching very frustrating to new or inexperienced users.  We have attempted to mitigate this, at least in part, by including many entry terms and cross references, which can provide helpful redirection in the system.

*Specificity
[11.1.7] The LAT uses a relatively high level of term specificity in order to meet users’ needs in the core subject area.  Intended users are specialists in the sword and swordmaking domains and would not be satisfied with common, generic terms.  Since our company is in the business of swordmaking, terms must be specific enough to deal with various designs, characteristics, and stages of the swordmaking process.  Rather than including all terms falling broadly in the “sword” discipline, we decided to be specific and focus only on Scottish swords.  In future expansion, however, we anticipate that terms falling into fringe areas would be treated somewhat more broadly than those currently included.  Inclusion of these terms would be contingent on the likelihood that a given concept would be used in our electronic database or product descriptions.

*Exhaustivity
Since the LAT is only in the first phase of its implementation, the current thesaurus is not at all exhaustive.  This is a pilot project, focusing first on a small segment of a much larger collection of weapons and related accessories.  Further, we have chosen to pursue some aspects (such as “sword parts”) that will eventually be used to establish relationships between other types of collection items.  At this time, the level of specificity we are aiming for (i.e., one class of swords at a time, with added terms for each relevant aspect) prevents us from being more exhaustive.  Exhaustiveness will be a consideration for future phases of implementation, when the thesaurus is expanded to cover other swords and a broader array of weapons.

 *Weight of aboutness vs. meaning
Clare Beghtol (1986) differentiates between aboutness and meaning.  Her definition of aboutness refers to those aspects associated with a document or item that are generally stable and permanent.  In contrast, the meaning of a document or object is relative to the specific individual who is using it.  Aboutness is consistent, while meaning can shift.  Our thesaurus places more weight on “aboutness,” according to Beghtol's perspective, because our collection is made of physical objects and can be described in relatively concrete terms.  For each of our collection items and content objects, it is possible to identify stable, permanent features.  These are the aspects we have focused on in the LAT.