LIS 415: Information Organization

Contact Information

Instructor: Daniel N. Joudrey
E-mail: joudrey@simmons.edu
Office: P-205B
Phone: (617) 521-2863


Unit 7: Aboutness and Subject Analysis

The process of determining what subject(s) an information resources is about is examined.

Topics: Nature of Aboutness, Aproaches to Aboutness, The work of Wilson, Langridge, Taylor, and Joudrey, Consistency

  • What is the process for determining subject content?
  • How is subject content assigned to non-textual materials?
  • How do search engines represent the concept of depth indexing?

Required Readings

Taylor, The Organization of Information, Chapter 9


Recommended Readings

Articles

Wellish, "Aboutness and ..."

Hickey, "Subject Analysis..."

Taylor, "On the Subject ... "

Pettee, "The Subject Approach to Books...," pp. 94-98.


Vocabulary

  • Aboutness
  • Author's intent
  • Consistency
  • Depth indexing
  • Disciplines
  • Document retrieval vs. Information retrieval
  • Exhaustivity
  • Figure-Ground method
  • Forms of Knowledge
  • Forms of Writing
  • Objective method
  • Purposive method
  • Rules of Selection and Rejection
  • Subject analysis
  • Summarization
  • Topic

Course Outline


Back to the Syllabus
Updated June 16, 2008.