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Subject retrieval from full-text databases in the humanities.

This paper examines the problems involved in subject retrieval from full-text databases of secondary materials in the humanities. Ten such databases were studied and their search functionality evaluated, focussing on factors such as Boolean operators, document surrogates, limiting by subject area, p...

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Published in:Portal: Libraries & the Academy Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 227 - 242
Main Author: East JW
Format: research Journal Article
Published: Johns Hopkins University Press Apr2007
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Apr2007
      vid: 7
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      pid: 226
      pub: Johns Hopkins University Press
      place: Baltimore, Maryland
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        106014804
        2009586469
        10.1353/pla.2007.0018
        106014804
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        atl: Subject retrieval from full-text databases in the humanities.
      aug:
        au: East JW
        affil: Liaison Librarian, Social Sciences and Humanities Library, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; john.east@uq.edu.au
      sug:
        subj:
          Full-Text Databases
          Information Retrieval Methods
          Liberal Arts
          Subject Headings
          Books
          Digitizers
          Web Search Engines
          Serial Publications
          Vocabulary, Controlled
          Human
      ab: This paper examines the problems involved in subject retrieval from full-text databases of secondary materials in the humanities. Ten such databases were studied and their search functionality evaluated, focussing on factors such as Boolean operators, document surrogates, limiting by subject area, proximity operators, phrase searching, wildcards, weighting of search terms, limiting by type of document, controlled vocabulary indexing and ranking, and display of search results. The author suggests ways in which full-text searching might be improved, whether by enhancement of database records, by introduction of enhanced search functionality, or by the education of searchers in more effective search techniques. The conclusion is that current digitization projects are not producing databases that meet the needs of scholars.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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