Organization of Information
Or Avoiding the Info Avalanche
History
• Information used to be easier to keep track of• Books take up physical space, can be easily
moved around, and don’t disappear when the electricity goes out
• Systems of organizing information were developed by people who were used to dealing with print
• Even the people who invented the Internet!
Libraries
Image by Hegemony77
Libraries
• Academic libraries use the Library of Congress Classification System (LC, for short)
• Different formats/information types are in different sections: books, periodicals, reference, government documents, media/reserves
• Books have LC Call Numbers, which function as the home address of the book.
Online Library Content
• Online library content is a (relatively) new phenomenon – libraries have been around for thousands of year & the Internet is only about 30!
• Only certain kinds of information is available online: journal articles were the first, and then video, audio, and books
• A lot of academic information is still only available in print
• There are many theories about how to best organize online library content for ease of use
Publishers
• Libraries subscribe to content packages (commonly called “databases”) provided by publishing companies
• CSUEB subscribes to over 100 of them! • Each publisher has their own platform (or
interface) which makes it difficult for libraries to provide seamless access to information
• Publishers (unlike web designers) are also working on a “born in print” model
Search Engines
Image by Riaz Phillips
Search Engines
• Libraries organize information by putting it in categories and attaching subject headings (the original hashtags!)
• Search engines don’t even try to organize information – they focus on using algorithms to automatically sift through millions of results
• Since search engines are working with “born digital” content (web pages), they have the freedom to develop interfaces that are intuitive to the online environment
Pretty
Less pretty
Keywords
• Because of the ways information is (and is not) organized, knowing how to search effectively is key
• Google will accept anything as a search term• Library resources are much less forgiving: they
require keywords• Keywords are words and phrases (including names
and dates) that are directly related to your topic• Keywords come from your research question
Keywords & Research Questions
• If my research question is:How can we improve traffic safety on the Spoon superhighway and reduce fatalities caused by space tourists from Earth?
• My keywords might be– Traffic safety– Reduce– Fatalities– Tourists
Synonyms & Related Terms
• When you’re thinking of keywords, also consider synonyms or related terms
• Synonyms are words that mean the same thing
• Related terms are words that are closely tied to your keywords
• Remember that databases are DUMB! They need you to tell them what to look for.
Review
• Libraries have been around for 1000s of years; the Internet is about 30 years old
• Academic libraries organize books using LC call numbers
• Online library content is relatively new and some scholarly content is only published in print
• Articles are available in databases provided by publishing companies
Review
• Search engines rely on algorithms; library content is organized by subject headings
• To do effective library research, use keywords• Include synonyms and related terms to make
sure your list of keywords is comprehensive• Your search results are only as good as your
searches
