THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
LSC 616 Indexing, Abstracting, and Thesaurus Construction
Spring 2012
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites: LSC551
Classroom: Hannan 105
Class meetings: Wednesday 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Instructor contact information:
Youngok Choi, Dr.
Marist Hall #245
Phone: 202-319-6275
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesday 12- 2 PM and by appointment
Course Description
An introduction to the terminology, principles, practices, and applications of controlled
vocabulary, especially thesauri, as well as their provision in meeting the needs of a variety of
information users within a variety of settings. Special emphasis on the historical context, current
issues and future trends; current standard models; tools and processes for their use; and their role
in organizing, accessing, and managing information within an organization. Projects in the
implications of indexing practice upon information access.
Instructional Methods
Lectures, class discussions, readings, exercises, projects, student presentations, and guest speaker
presentations. Course materials such as handouts, and lecture will be available on the course site.
Required Text
Donald B. Cleveland and Ana D. Cleveland. Introduction to Indexing and Abstracting,
3rd ed. 2001. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited. (Available in the CUA Bookstore)
Libraries
The CUA Libraries' wide range of resources and services, including databases, online journals,
and FAQs are on the main web site. For assistance on papers and assignments, consult the
research guides or schedule an appointment with a subject librarian.
Course Goals
To explore theory and practical aspects of thesaurus construction and maintenance, and indexing
and abstracting, in the context of traditional and computerized applications. Additionally, the
course will expose students to practical applications of these topics in a professional library,
archives or museum settings. [Note: Students should prepare for each class meeting by
completing all assigned readings and be ready to lead discussion in the next week’s class.]
Goals for Student Learning
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
understand the role of indexing and abstracting in information storage/retrieval process
understand the fundamentals of indexing and abstracting various types of materials.
identify and evaluate different types of indexes and abstracts
construct user-centered indexes and abstracts
be able to use thesauri and understand methods of thesaurus design and construction.
be able to use thesaurus creation software
be able to index a web site using HTML
Expectations and policies
Academic honesty: Academic honesty is expected of all CUA students. Faculty are
required to initiate the imposition of sanctions when they find violations of academic
honesty, such as plagiarism, improper use of a student’s own work, cheating, and
fabrication.
The following sanctions are presented in the University procedures related to Student
Academic Dishonesty (from
http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrityprocedures.cfm): “The presumed
sanction for undergraduate students for academic dishonesty will be failure for the
course. There may be circumstances, however, where, perhaps because of an
undergraduate student’s past record, a more serious sanction, such as suspension or
expulsion, would be appropriate. In the context of graduate studies, the expectations for
academic honesty are greater, and therefore the presumed sanction for dishonesty is
likely to be more severe, e.g., expulsion. ...In the more unusual case, mitigating
circumstances may exist that would warrant a lesser sanction than the presumed
sanction.”
Please review the complete texts of the University policy and procedures regarding
Student Academic Dishonesty, including requirements for appeals, at
http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrity.cfm and
http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrity.cfm.
Accommodations for students with disabilities: Any student who feels s/he may need
an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor
privately to discuss specific needs. Please contact Disability Support Services (at 202
319-5211, room 207 Pryzbyla Center) to coordinate reasonable accommodations for
students with documented disabilities. To read about the services and policies, please
visit the website: http://disabilitysupport.cua.edu.
Required Technologies
The following technologies are taught as an essential part of this course or required for course
delivery:



Basic HTML
Publishing a web page to the CUA Personal Web Site
Use of collaborative tools (a blog and wiki) for shared content development and
collaborative activity
Assessment
Grades will be based on the following (subject to minor adjustment):
(Note: An instruction and details of each assignment will be handed in class and be available on a course
BB site.)
Requirements
Exercises
Research and presentation of indexing for special formats
Evaluation of Index
Web indexing (created in HTML)
Thesaurus construction (group project)
Class attendance (One class miss is allowed. Additional misses
will be penalized with 2 points deduction out of your total
weighted grade.
Contribution to Grade
30%
10%
10%
20%
30%
Final grades will be determined by the following scale:



A: 94 – 100
B+: 86-89.99
C: 70-77.99
A-: 90 -93.99
B: 82-85.99
F: Below 70
B-: 78-81.99
Note:
1. Detailed information of assignments and projects will be distributed in class or available on
Blackboard (https://blackboard.cua.edu)
2. Please consult below in the section “Participation and conduct” for other course policies
University grades:
The University grading system is available at
http://policies.cua.edu/academicgrad//gradesfull.cfm#iii for graduate students.
Reports of grades in courses are available at the end of each term on
http://cardinalstation.cua.edu .
Course Schedule
This schedule and syllabus is subject to change depending on class needs. Sometimes, additional
suggested readings may be added or announced in class.
Date & topic
1/11
Introduction
to the course
Readings & Assignments
Readings:
 Cleveland, chapters 1 -3
 Wellisch, Francis J. (1983). 'Index' - the word, its history, meanings and

usages, Indexer 13(3), 147-151. Retrieved January 3, 2010, from
http://www.theindexer.org/files/13-3/13-3_147.pdf
Index evaluation checklist
http://www.asindexing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3297
1/18
Indexing
basics
1/25
Indexing
languages
Book
Indexing
areas
Assignments:
 Exercise #1 (due on 1/18)
Readings:
 Cleveland & Cleveland –Ch 5 (pp.48-55) & 6
Readings:
 Cleveland, Chapter 4
 Jennifer Rowley (1994). The controlled versus natural indexing languages debate
revisited: a perspective on information retrieval practice and research. Journal of
Information Science. April 1994. 20: 108-118.
 Cleveland, Chs. 8, 9-10
Assignments:
2/1
Indexing
special
formats;
2/8 Web
indexing
Exercise #2 indexing exercise
Presentation on indexing for special formats
Readings:
Cleveland & Cleveland – Chapters 11, 15
F S. Shatford Layne (1994). Some issues in the indexing of images. Journal of the
American Society for Information Science 45 (8): 583-588.
Readings:
 Changes in Website indexing http://www.webindexing.biz/PDFs/CWI.pdf
 Indexing the web


http://www.asindexing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3418
HTML indexing: A few hits on what it’s all about http://www.webindexing.org/resources-wyman-HTML-indexing.htm
Index usability test questions http://www.stcsig.org/idx/articles/usability.pdf
Assignments:
Web indexing (due on 2/29)
2/15
Abstracting
Reading
 Cleveland, Chs. 5 (pp.56-59) and 7
 Pinto, Maria, & Lancaster, F.W. (1999). Abstracts and abstracting in knowledge
discovery. Library Trends, 48(1), 234-248.
 Abstracts: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/abstracts.html
2/22
Ash
Wednesday
2/29
Thesaurus
basics
3/7
Spring break
3/14
Thesaurus
construction
(facets)
Abstracting Continued
Assignments:
Exercise #3 Abstracting
Reading
 Aitchison, J. & Clake, S. D. (2004). The thesaurus: A historical viewpoint, with
a look to the future. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 37(3/4): 5-21.
 Thomas, A. R. (2004). Teach yourself thesaurus: Exercises, readings,
resources. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 37(3/4): 23-34.
 Building a Synonymous Search Index (Thesaurus)
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/web_architect/thesaurus.html
 ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005
Assignments
Thesaurus construction project handout (group project) due on 4/18
(no class)
Reading
Cleveland & Cleveland – Chapter 4 (p.40-47, 91-96)
3/21
Thesaurus
construction
(relationships
)
3/28
Use of
computer for
thesaurus
building
Reading
 Aitchison, Jean, Alan Gilchrist, and David Bawden. 2000. Thesaurus construction
and use: A practical manual. 4th ed. London: ASLIB/IMI. (pp.49-68)
 Mazzocchi, F. et al. (2007). Relational semantics in thesauri: some remarks at
theoretical and practical levels. Knowledge Organization, 4. 197-246
Using thesaurus construction software (demo)
Reading
 Riesland, Melissa A. (2006). Tools of the Trade: Vocabulary Management
Software, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 37: 3, 155-176.
 Hedden, H. (2008). Comparative evaluation of thesaurus creation software. The
Indexer, 26(2), p. 50-59.
4/4
Evaluation of
existing
thesauri
Reading
4/11
Indexing
quality,
consistence,
evaluation
4/18
*Wrap-up:
Course
summary

Shiri, Ali Asghar; Revie, Crawford; Chowdhury, Gobinda. (2002) Thesaurusenhanced search interfaces. Journal of Information Science. 28(2), pp.111 122.

Owens, Leslie Ann and Cochrane, Pauline Atherton (2006). Thesaurus
Evaluation, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 37: 3, 87-102
Reading
Ch. 12-13
Assignment
 Evaluation of Indexing (due on 5/2)
Group project presentation and paper due
Cleveland, chapters 15 and 16
4/25
Reading day
5/2 Final
exam week
(no class)
Indexing evaluation paper due
Reference
American Society for Indexing http://www.asindexing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3267
Lancaster, F. W. (2003). Indexing and abstracting in theory and practice. Third Edition (Champaign, IL:
University of Illinois Press, Graduate School of Library and Information Science).
Soergel, D. (1985). Organizing information: principles of data base and retrieval systems.(San
Diego, CA: Academic Press).
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Course Policies and Procedures:
Formatting of your assignments.
 I prefer electronic submission of your assignments via course BB site’s Assignment folder
(http://blackboard.cua.edu)
 For hard copy work, securely fasten together any papers that are more than 1 page.
 Place your name and the assignment titlte/number on the first page.
 Minimum margins are 1 ¼” left and 1” top, bottom, and 1 ¼” right.
 Use double-spaced line spacing, or space and a half, not single-spaced.
 Submitted work must have a professional appearance and not be handwritten.
 Any work submitted with numerous ungrammaticalities will be penalized.
Participation & Conduct:

Attendance is mandatory. Attendance is required, in keeping with university policy. Students may
miss up to 3 classes (equivalent to one class miss) without a penalty. Additional miss will be
penalized.

Late work. Assignments are due at the start of class. Assignments turned in after the due time
without prior approval will be penalized 10% for each 24-hour period that it is late. Assignments
that are over 2 days late will NOT be accepted unless arrangements have been made with me. I
encourage you to consult with me any special circumstances that will affect your ability to
perform your assignments or turn in your assignments on time.

No makeup work.

Arrive on time.

Behave respectfully. Students are expected to behave respectfully while in class.

No grade discussions in class. Instructors will not discuss grades in class. First consider why the
instructors deducted points. If you still disagree, explain your disagreement in an e-mail to the
instructors.
Late Policy
Assignments are due at the start of class. Assignments turned in after the due time without prior approval
will be penalized 10% for each 24-hour period that it is late. Assignments that are over 2 days late will
NOT be accepted unless arrangements have been made with me. I encourage you to consult with me any
special circumstances that will affect your ability to perform your assignments or turn in your
assignments on time.
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Syllabus changes:

The instructor reserves the right to make changes to this syllabus if circumstances warrant such
change. All changes will be provided to students in writing.