Posts by Melody Smith
The Evolution of Science
Science is all about evolution and that includes the library of science, specifically the Public Library of Science (PLOS) and their thesaurus. With more than 10,700 Subject Area terms, they use the thesaurus to index articles and provide useful links to related papers, enhanced search functions, and PLOS ONE – an e-journal platform with subject area browsing capability made possible by the PLOS thesaurus.
Read MoreWord Geeks Have a Say
I have confessed my geekness here before when it comes to Scrabble, Words with Friends, spelling bees, and words in general. This explains how intrigued I was to consider what word I would add to the dictionary. My mind raced with possibilities. Was there a word that used a Q, K and Z? Just think of the points that make and the relief of using all the “problem children” at once.
Read MoreSearch – Tout de Suite
A French search engine, Yatedo, has transformed its user experience by implementing CDNetworks’ Web Content Acceleration service. Based on their innovative technology, using semantics, phonetics, and a streamlined interface, Yatedo can distinguish between homonyms and present search results as profiles.
Read MoreMonetizing Knowledge
The fields of information science and economics have been expanding and overlapping for some time now. With the ever-increasing recognition of the value of knowledge organization systems (KOS), especially in the context of improved technologies and practices for them, it is time to look at them from the perspective of economics.
Read MoreIntro to Taxonomies – Learning Opportunity
Learn from professionals with decades of experience all while enjoying the Canadian hospitality in beautiful Vancouver. The “Introduction to Taxonomies” all day workshop features our own Marjorie Hlava and Bob Kasenchak, and is part of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference in Vancouver, June 6-10, 2014. The SLA Annual Conference is an excellent international venue for learning new ideas and identifying information trends.
Read MoreLimitations of Fuzzy Matching of Lexical Variants
Some vendors of text analytics software claim that their software can identify the occurrences of text reflecting specific taxonomy terms (with the strong, and false, implication that it identifies all such occurrences) using “fuzzy matching” or “fuzzy term matching.” Some explanations of the technology, from Techopedia and Wikipedia, show that it is a fairly crude mathematical approach, similar to the co-occurrence statistical approaches that such software also tends to use, and no match for rule-based indexing approaches that derive their effectiveness from human intelligence.
Read MoreApproach with Consistency
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) recently announced the publication of a revision to the Knowledge Bases and Related Tools (KBART) Recommended Practice (NISO RP-9-2014). The original recommended practice which was issued in 2010, provided all parties in the information supply chain with straightforward guidance about metadata formatting.
Read MoreThree Librarians Walk Into a Casino
If you are still on the fence about whether to attend the American Libraries Association (ALA) Annual Meeting in Las Vegas this summer, this bit of news might help you make your decision. There will be a special performance by the Oxford Commas, a band composed of librarians and university press editors who are dedicated to raising the grammatical standard in popular music. The set list will include such favorites as: Whom Do You Love?, You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet, and Two Out of Three Is Not Bad.
Read MoreEmbracing Knowledge Management
KM Institute (KMI) just offered its first Certified Knowledge Specialist (CKS) 4-day class this week in Reston, VA. Why are we talking about something that has already happened? The CKS is a new Certification by KMI designed to take a deeper focus a specific knowledge management-related topic. In this case, the focus was on Taxonomy and Search Solutions.
Read MoreSemantic Technology Professional Sought
The International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF), an international organization launched in 2005, following a proposal from the Global Science Forum of the OECD to establish international coordination and collaborative informatics infrastructure for neuroscience. INCF, in collaboration with the Human Brain Project, is now seeking to immediately hire a Semantic Technology Specialist.
Read More