KO-ED Introduction to Knowledge Organization - Subject Headings by Vanda Broughton

Subject headings: a word-based approach to organization and retrieval

 Prof. Vanda Broughton  will look at language as the primary means of search, and considers some of the problems associated with word-based retrieval, not least questions of bias and correctness. Her presentation will cover the following points.

• Searching with terms or keywords is now a more usual default for most end-users
• ‘Word’ based systems have some inherent difficulties (synonymy, homonymy, insignificant search terms, preferred and non-preferred terms ….)
• How to present complexity of content, consistency and citation order
• Some standards for subject heading lists; IFLA guidelines
• International tools; Sears, LCSH
• Problems of bias and ethics; how we address/avoid these

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The class was delivered via Zoom and was attended by 90 participants from 22 countries. Presentation slides are available to all participants via the KO-ED forum on the ISKO UK website.