Draft 4 Instructions(On the topic dairy production and processing books)
(Sections 5.0, 6.1 – 6.2, 7.0, Appendix F)
5. Name authority control
Name authority control is applied to fields that contain personal names (people) and corporate names (companies, organizations). A name authority file provides authorized forms of names for technical users to enter in records and, in some systems, for end users to identify as search terms. The name authority file you develop in this section builds on decisions you made in section 3.
Tasks: Identify all fields that contain personal or corporate names. Develop a name authority file to control data in all of these fields. This is basically a paper document similar to a thesaurus, but used for controlling names. Create Appendix F: Name authority file to describe this file.
Write narrative.
Narrative: Explain in general what name authority control is, how it works for technical users and end users, and why it is important. List the specific fields that are under name authority control in your system and describe why you need name authority on those fields. Describe the name authority file, and explain its structure and how users interact with it.
Refer to Appendix F.
Additional tasks for completing this section· Revise (or write) rules in Appendix C for each field under name authority control. See Input Rules Tutorial.
· Revise section 3 narrative, if necessary, to list fields under name authority control.
· IMPORTANT: Revise Appendix G: Sample records by completing the 10 records to demonstrate your final set of record fields, specifications, and input rules. The names in Appendix G must match your authorized forms.
6.0. System Evaluation
There are so many variables in the information world that no system can be expected to remain static over time or to respond perfectly to all requests at any given time. Given the dynamic characteristics of your collection and users described in section 1, section 6 focuses on the need for ongoing evaluation and development of both your overall information organization system and your IR system.
NOTE: Although your system responds to changes in the collection, this section addresses evaluation and development of the information organization and information retrieval systems, not changes to the collection, collection development policies or procedures (materials selection/deselection, etc.).
6.1. SWOT
This section addresses strengths and weaknesses of the database you created for your system, end users performance and the environment with respect to a SWOT analysis, PEST analysis and various information organization decisions throughout the project. This will relate directly back to your sections 1.2 – 2.3.You will compare what you wanted in 1.3-2.2 to what you actually built, and the differences feed the SWOT analysis.
A SWOT analysis is a helpful technique used for identifying and understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) affecting a business, project or situation. For purposes of this project, you will apply a SWOT analysis to your own system.
A PEST analysis looks at the external macro-environment focusing on the political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) factors of the external macro-environment that impact the firm or system. You will apply a PEST analysis to your own system.
Tasks: Review the questions below applicable to both SWOT and PEST. Consider each of these from both an internal perspective as the cataloger and from the point of view of your end user. The SWOT is about your database system – not your library or your collection.
Strengths:
What advantage does your system have?
What advantage does your thesaurus provide? Name authority file? (i.e., would a typical user understand these aids and use them?)
What does your system do better than anyone else’s? (how would you determine this?)
What does your target market see as the strengths of your system?
What is your library collection’s unique selling position? (i.e., what is your competitive edge over possible competitors?)
Weaknesses:
What can you improve?
What should you avoid?
What are end users likely to see as weaknesses?
Is it difficult for an end user to formulate a particular kind of search query?
Are the attributes suggested by your questions in 1.3 represented in the system?
Are some searches better conducted using natural language?
What factors influence your system not being sold in the market?
Are competitors in your space, doing better than you?
Opportunities:
What good opportunities do you see?
What trends are you aware of that impact your library collection and system?
Do any of your weaknesses lend to an opportunity?
Consider changes in technology, changes in policy and procedures, changes in your target population lilfestyle, social changes, and local events.
Threats:
What obstacles does your library collection and system face?
What is the competition, if any, doing?
Are quality standards in our professional changing that impact the standards and specification for your collection?
Do any of your weaknesses seriously cause a threat?
Consider your PEST analysis when examining the opportunities and threats. Do not overlook external factors that have an impact. PEST focuses on high level and factors that may influence the market or the business. Consider your demographics and knowledge levels of your end users from section 1.3.
Political:
When is the next local, state or national election? How does this impact your library collection and system?
What are the views of external stakeholders that may have policy decisions that affect your organization?
Will corruption have any effect on you?
Is there pending legislation or tax changes this can impact this system?
Economic:
How stable is the current economy? Is the profession growing, stagnating or declining?
Are end users’ level of income rising or falling?
What is the unemployment rate?
How is globalization impacting the economic environment?
Are there other economic factors you should consider (consider your demographics of your end uers)
Social:
What is your populations’ growth rate and age profile? How is this likely to change?
Will generational shifts affect your system?
How is your populations’ levels of knowledge, education, and social mobilities changing? What impact does this have on your system?
What patterns in the job market and attitudes of consumers and end users do you observe?
What of these attitudes and values of end users can influence your library collection?
Technological:
Are there any new technologies that you could be using?
Are there any new systems that may affect this system?
Is there any competition in your market that can redefine their systems to make your system obsolete?
Does remote work have any impact on the cataloger work patterns? What about for your end user?
What tools are available that you can work with further to expand your current system? Or replace your current system?
Narrative: Prior to the SWOT and Prior to the PEST charts, begin with a brief paragraph that explains and defines what a SWOT and PEST analyses are respectively, and the application to this project. Explain your rationale and analysis – i.e. how you reached your conclusions – of each of the four sections of SWOT and for each of the four sections of PEST. Think about purpose and what you are trying to accomplish with each tool. The analyses should explain why you came up with what you did. Summarize your findings within the applicable chart for each applicable section using bullet points, and elaborate on each in the narrative.
The narrative should demonstrate your basic understanding of the effects on system performance of relevant factors such as user abilities, factors of the internal and external environments. Conclude 6.1 with a final paragraph that discusses how your findings compliment or differ from your initial 1.2 – 2.3 sections. Throughout this section, remember that no system is perfect; that an identified weakness can actually become an opportunity; an external political threat can actually become a positive. No past-tense verbs are appropriate.
Complete the SWOT and PEST Analysis charts
This section is crucial, as here you are making your final analysis on what you designed.
SWOT Analysis Chart:
SWOT chartStrengths
Example: Catalogers are well-educated who understand the value of information organization.
Weaknesses
Example: System does not have all the bells and whistles of flexibility needed for special collection of art books.
Opportunities
Example: Untapped market (Large shift in recent population demographics of Generation X that will appreciate online technology).
Threats
Example: Larger libraries have more buying power.
PEST Analysis Chart:
PEST chartPolitical
Example: Government funding issues to keep public libraries open.
Economic
Example: Unemployment increase which will impact (increase) library usage.
Social
Example: Social mobility on the rise.
Technological
Example: Competing technology development.
6.2. Change and development
This section concerns ways to improve and develop the organization system and its implementation in the IR system. It takes into account implications of the SWOT and PEST analyses discussed in the previous section, along with potential responses of the system to large-scale changes in its information environment.
IMPORTANT: Although your system does respond to changes in the collection, this section addresses only changes in the information organization system and IR system. It does not address everyday database maintenance (e.g., record additions/deletions) or collection development policies and procedures (e.g., materials selection/deselection).
Tasks: Consider the results of the SWOT and PEST analyses to complete. Speculate on how specific findings from these analyses can be incorporated into system improvements and development. Review previous sections of the project. Think about how the information environment—collection, setting, and users—may change over time. Suggest how certain aspects of the system can evolve or expand to respond to these changes.
Consider the following areas, how can you:
Use the strengths to take advantage of the opportunities identified?
Use the strengths to overcome or minimize the threats identified?
Improve weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities?
Minimize the weaknesses to overcome the threats?
Your suggestions may involve:
Metadata elements
Access points
Database fields and their specifications
Record content and input rules
Authority control
Indexing language (specificity, technical/professional jargon)
Depth of indexing
Classification
Any other aspects of the organization system and/or IR system
Narrative: Develop a strategy to address issues in the SWOT and PEST analyses based on the four areas presented above. Discuss and recommend ways in which the information organization system and IR system can be improved or developed based on the SWOT and PEST findings.
Include your suggestions for each of the four areas above; include reference to section 6.1 and any anticipated changes in the information environment.
Be as specific as possible in suggesting changes in any of the areas listed above, and in justifying your suggestions. This narrative is particularly geared toward your organization system as a whole and thus should cover only areas you feel can or should be improved. It should demonstrate your understanding of the implications of pertinent decisions made throughout the project. Future-tense verbs are appropriate here.
Note: This narrative is particularly geared toward your organization system as a whole and thus should cover only areas you feel can or should be improved. It should demonstrate your understanding of the implications of pertinent decisions made throughout the project. Future-tense verbs are appropriate here. This should be a significant discussion rather than just a paragraph.
Additional tasks to prepare Final Draft 4
· Review instructor’s marks and comments on Draft 3 to see that you addressed or considered all of them.
If you have questions, discuss them with your instructor prior to submitting the new draft.
· Use Draft 4 Checklist on your own draft before submitting.
7.0. Project summary
Congratulations! You have created an original and comprehensive information organization system including a working database. Now to debrief . . .
Section 7 is an opportunity for you to describe your experiences with the project, both positive and negative. This section is a critical component of the report because it helps the instructor understand your experience this semester and improve the assignment for future semesters. Your comments will not affect your grade; however, this section does count toward your score for completeness of the final report draft.
Use this section to describe both your opinion of the outcome of the project and any problems you had in completing it. Because this may be the first time you have attempted the systematic organization of a collection of information objects, you should expect to be confused or frustrated at times. Here you can identify problems you found especially difficult to deal with and discuss how you might construct your system differently based on what you now understand about the concepts and practices of information organization.
Tasks: Review your experience with and thoughts about the project, such as:
Your reasons for choosing to organize this specific collection
Why or how your system is different or better than an existing or traditional system
Any major problems you had with representing objects in this collection
How you might construct your system differently based on what you now know
Problems you had with certain parts of the assignment
Problems overcome and skills learned
Whether there is a chance that you might actually implement this system for a real collection
The above items are just suggestions to get you started. You may choose to discuss other concerns and ideas.
Narrative: This section is open-ended; discuss any or all of the points above (or others). Suggested length is up to 2 pages.
Note: Because this is your personal assessment, you should write in the first person.
Project Appendixes
Appendix F. Name authority file
The name authority file provides authorized forms of personal and corporate names that are entered in designated fields of records in the main database file. When creating records in the main database, the technical user finds a name in/on an information object and then consults the name authority file to determine the authorized form of that name to input. The name authority file itself is a paper file in which each record represents one authorized name.
For this appendix, you create a paper file for name authority records. The appendix has two parts that mirror closely what you did for Appendixes C and G for the main database:
Input rules for the three fields in the NA file (AuthorizedName, VariantName, SourcesUsed)
Sample records
Tasks: All fields are predetermined. Write input rules for each field, following a format similar to that in Appendix C, but with only five parts: Field number, Field name, Semantics, Input Rules, Example. See guidelines in the online module Name authority records and rules. Here’s a brief summary:
The rule for the AuthorizedName field should include instructions for establishing the authorized form of a name, along with style limitations (e.g., whether to invert names as in “Picasso, Pablo”).
For the VariantNames field, invent variant names if none exist in/on the object.
The SourcesUsed field cites source(s) used in establishing that particular authorized name. Citations usually consist of title and year.
Create only 10 records, each for a different name drawn from your 10 sample information objects. These should include records for at least one personal and one corporate name (if your objects contain both and if you have both under Name Authority control. If you have less than 10 proper names in your main database, make a note to that effect after the last Name authority record. If one or two of your authorized names have no variants, that is OK, just leave the VariantName field blank. When entering data in the sample records, follow your own rules. Type the records directly into the appendix.
Appendix: Copy the two-part format below with the subheadings shown, once for each of the three fields in the NA file (AuthorizedName, VariantName, SourcesUsed)
Record content and input rules [Number fields 1-3]
Field#:
Field Name:
Semantics:
Input Rules:
Example:
Note… if you list three fields from the main database here, you are misconceiving what is going on and you will have points taken off.
Repeat for each field.
Sample records
Use the following mask to create your records:
AuthorizedName:
VariantNames:
SourcesUsed:
Repeat for each record
Recap: Appendix F has two parts: Rules and Records, and Records contains 10 Records, each with three fields.