SP10Q4Response

The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially change involving information technology. User generation of content has become the "norm" in many information environments. In order to meet changing nature of user expectations, libraries or information centers are taking measures to provide collections and services that are more user-centered. a) Discuss issues and challenges involved in using controlled vocabulary to organize and represent items in collections vis-à-vis user tagging of such items. Definitions:  Controlled vocabulary: specialized vocabulary which removes the ambiguity from language by selecting a preferred term for each important indexable concept  Social/user tagging:users assign their own terms to items

Challenges involved in using controlled vocabulary: Challenges/issues in using user tagging:
 * Specifc versus General Terms
 * how specifc should the chosen terms
 * e.g. specialized vocabulary for animal breeders would contain specifc terms for specifc breeds such as Shitzu, Dalmatian, etc. a thesaurus for young children could simply use the word dog
 * Synonyms (how different are similar terms?)
 * Word form (e-mail vs. email)
 * sequence of words (Secondary Education vs. Education, Secondary)
 * homographs/homophones (minute, plane/plain)
 * abbreviations/acronyms
 * popular vs. technical terms
 * mulitple languages
 * does not use the vocabulary of users
 * no vocabulary control (spelling variations/plural vs. singular forms)
 * user terminology inconsistent
 * need more here! **

b) What is the future of controlled vocabulary as a practice for providing a standardized or structured representation of items in collections? Controlled vocabularies remain important Help control the "noise" or the retrieval of non-relevant items Can be enhanced by allowing users to add descriptive tags

*Need more here!

c) Should catalogers continue to use controlled vocabulary? If yes, how will they meet the evolving expectations of user information needs in the digital environment? Yes

Importance of controlled vocabulary:
 * helps control the terms that are used to describe items,trying to account for the ambiguities in language
 * without using controlled vocabularies chaos could ensue.
 * In a library OPAC, terms and values must be controlled in order for the system to maintain a high level of recall and precision in results.
 * Promotes the conistent representation of subject matter

How to meet the needs of today's users:
 * hybrid -- create a controlled vocabulary and allow users to also generate tags for everyone else, but prompt them with suggested tags as they create theirs