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Dissertation Information for James Harvey May

NAME:
- James Harvey May

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Columbia University (USA) (1978)

ADVISORS:
- Theodore C. Hines

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Ambiguous

Title: IDENTIFICATION OF DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR EFFICIENT COMPUTERIZED BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA INPUT

Abstract: One of the most important aspects of information
systems from the standpoint of cost is the input process.
A critical part of that process is the keyboarding of data.
It is the costliest single operation in the conversion of
data into machine-readable form for major bibliographic
data production systems today. Cost of keyboarding can be
reduced through attention to frequency and ordering
characteristics of specific items of keyboarded data.
These characteristics are determined from an analysis
of present large scale systems, especially MARC II of the
Library of Congress. A variety of statistical data in
printed, data base, or unpublished manuscript form has
been gathered on some of the more important of these systems.
That data has been supplemented by analyses of frequency
and ordering compilations found elsewhere. The various
statistics are shown to be interrelated and consistent over
a variety of situations. Bibliometric laws are seen as
useful in predicting frequency patterns of character strings.
Actual techniques to reduce input currently used by
the systems studied are reviewed. Orders of magnitude of
their savings in keying are determined, where possible,
through reference to data characteristics. These techniques
are of two types depending on the kind of data characteristics
they use. One type relies on how relative frequencies
of particular symbols, strings, words, phrases, and
bibliographic elements are distributed in specific instances.
Basically, more frequently occurring strings are
made shorter, in terms of keystrokes used, through various
abbreviating schemes. With limited size keyboards rarely
occurring symbols, on the other hand, may be converted to
character strings so that keys are freed for frequent
symbols.
The second class of techniques takes advantage of
source data patterns, or order. Bibliographic data is
particularly amenahle to this class of techniques because
of its consistent formats and the hierarchical structuring
of much of that data. The internal pattern of an entry, in
terms of the bibliographic elements selected and the order
in which they are found on the source document, is fairly
rigidly set and, usually, can be predicted, especially for
catalog entries. Entries such as journal article citations
are grouped by issue so that data cornmon to a series of
entries can be keyboarded only once and automatically posted
to each entry when the data is processed by the computer.
Alphabetic or other order of whole files to be converted to
machine-readable form is also shown to be of use in reducing
input keying.
From the review of techniques several general principles
of input design are found. These general principles
suggest other ways to make current techniques more efficient.
The principles also indicate other ways of dealing with
input. A subset of possible improvements in input design
which is relatively machine and data dependent is chosen
for analysis. The principles are tested on actual large
and well-known systems.
How these principles fit into the broader theoretical
bases of information systems is also explored. In terms of
semiotics, or the study of signs, the improvements analyzed
utilize syntactic rather than semantic or pragmatic relationships.
Yet, underlying principles are shown to be conducive
to expanded application with the higher semiotic levels.
Ideas for further research in these areas are given.

MPACT Scores for James Harvey May

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:01:51

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Students under James Harvey May

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None