Call for Papers for IASSIST

By Melody Smith | November 18, 2014

There is a call for papers for the next International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST) conference in June of 2015. IASSIST is an international organization of professionals working in and with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences.

Read More

Good Housekeeping Enhances Findability

By Melody Smith | November 4, 2014

Many industries, including law firms, still struggle to incorporate the basics of records management systems. Though some look on such systems as an archaic form of organization, digitization and technology have made it today’s answer to findability. Of course this only applies when it is done properly.

Read More

But No Rudolph

By Melody Smith | October 27, 2014

An interesting find in the world of taxonomies today, Platter-saurus – a thesaurus of 20th century musical styles, artists, and titles. This website is also available in a printed book format (limited quantities available) and CD-ROM. The advantage of the book and CD-ROM is that you can explore Musical Categories and find artists and song titles you may not have heard of before or perhaps have forgotten.

Read More

The Power of Metadata

By Melody Smith | October 23, 2014

The publishing industry has long been reliant on digital information to sell books in all formats. More and more, publishers are considering the tools they use to manage the publishing process. Their challenges include inefficient tools, often requiring replication of work to process what is essentially the same data for different uses.

Read More

Classifying Men?

By Melody Smith | October 22, 2014 |

I am still surprised at the variety of taxonomies I found and I typically find them in the oddest places. This one came from ECNS in their article, “Male outcast taxonomy.” Though not a true taxonomy, its classification efforts are as unique as the topic.

Read More

Adding to the Data

By Melody Smith | October 22, 2014

The European Training Thesaurus (ETT) is Cedefop’s controlled vocabulary used to index the VET-Bib (the Reference Library of Vocational Education and Training in Europe) bibliographic database.

Read More

Segue Into Spelling

By Melody Smith | October 6, 2014

Segue is an odd word. It’s conjugated versions defy normal grammar and spelling rules, i.e. segueing, segued, etc. Pronunciation is a whole new challenge as many understand the meaning and use it in day to day conversation, but when it comes time to spell it — that is a whole different story.

Read More