NEW MODELS
FROM OLD TOOLS
CAROL L. TILLEY and KATHRYN LA BARRE
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois
ISKO 2010
Partial funding provided by an OCLC/ALISE LISR Program Grant
Presentation Overview
Why folktales?
Who and what is being studied?
What methods are we using?
What have we learned so far?
How will we proceed?
Why Folktales?
They are complex information
resources.
Catalog records often omit
critical information.
Standard tools for access are
often complex and out of date.
No single type of user
predominates their use.
About Folklore and Folktales
Field of study is relatively
new and dynamic.
Basic requirements—
• Conveyed orally or informally
demonstrated
• Traditional in nature
• Has natural variants
No systematic definition of
folktales.
Several scholarly traditions
of engaging folktales.
Discovery and Access Tools
Tale types
• Narrative or plot structure
• Sequence of motifs
Motifs
• Actors
• Items
• Single incidents
“Some ideas have been so recurrent in tradition that we may
encounter and recognize them in a great number of ‘texts’”
(Toelken, 1996, p. 209).
Who and What is Being Studied?
Four scholars at GSLIS
• Intentional folklorists
• Teach youth-services librarianship
• Are storytellers
Folktales Collections
• ~1200 volumes included at the
Center for Children’s Books
• Primarily published for a juvenile
audience
• Publication dates range from 1880 2010
Our Research Questions
[P1] scholar [P2] practitioner [P3] lay user
RQ1) What kinds of information seeking tasks are
evident for people seeking folktales? Are tasks shared
across groups?
RQ2) What characteristics of an information
retrieval interface best support tasks?
RQ3) To what extent do current bibliographic
records support tasks? What improvements are
suggested by facet and task analysis?
What Methods Are We Using?
Task analysis
•
•
Repertoire of techniques
Approaches
• Semi-structured interviews
• Simulation interviews
• Observation
Facet analysis
•
•
“Sorting of terms in a given field into homogeneous mutually exclusive
facets each derived from the parent universe by a single characteristic
of division.” (Vickery, 1960).
Steps
• Mapping the scope
• Labeling and sorting
• Clustering and ordering
What Have We Learned So Far? / TASK
SCHOLARLY PRACTICES (TASK ANALYSIS)
EXPLORE
Read and scan: tale collections/ websites/ journals.
SEARCH
Identify variants and aggregations.
Follow citations.
*COLLECT
Build personal folklore libraries.
Keep notes about folktale variants.
*CREATE
Adapt a tale for performance.
Design folktale-based programs.
SYNTHESIZE
Critique published adaptations.
Document variants. Prepare instructional
materials.
STUDY
Audience response. Examine the
relationship between personal narratives
and folktales.
What Have We Learned So Far? / FACET
Agent (by origin) (by mode) (by role) (by occupation)
(by function)
Relation (language) (award) (review) (by origin) (by form) (by
function) (by level) (by aggregation)
Place (by origin) (of setting) (of publication) (of item)
Time (by origin) (of setting) (of publication)
Elements (type) (motif) (character) (theme) (illustration)
Documentation (bibliography)(index) (note) (acknowledgment)
(table of contents)
Performance (aspects) (strategies) (values) (interpretation) (role)
(function)
Transmission (aspects) (strategies) (reception) (values) (function)
(role)
Viewpoint (?)
AFS ETHNOGRAPHIC THESAURUS
A General ethnographic concepts.
B Belief and worldview
C Ritual-belief manifest
D Health
E Migration and Settlement
F Human Dynamics
G Law and Governance
H Education
I Entertainment
J Art
K Language
L Verbal Arts and Literature
M Music
N Dance
P Material Culture
Q Foodways
R Work
S Performance
T Transmission
U Beings
V Space and Place
W Time
X Disciplines- Fields of study.
Y Research, Theory, and
Methodology
Z Documentation
Desired Features for Discovery & Access
• Searchable fields for source notes, cultural attributions
• Descriptor fields for characters and other motifs
• Integration of learning standards, suggested audience
for performance
• Other: directed searching and serendipitous discovery,
full-text or extended synopses
Prototype Record
Agent MARC 245/700
Relation MARC 510, 586, 76X-78X, [RDA linking]
Place MARC 260, 751 [of setting]
Time MARC 260 [of setting]
Elements MARC 6XX (type) (motif)
Documentation (MARC 5XX) (note) (acknowledgment)
Performance (aspects) (strategies) (values)
(interpretation) (role) (function)
Transmission (aspects) (strategies) (reception)
(values) (function) (role) (restrictions)
How Will We Proceed?
Task-Side
•
•
•
Conduct simulation interviews with scholars
Interview additional scholars and practitioners
Observe scholars and practitioners
Facet-Side
•
•
Analyze interviews
Full facet analysis of classifications and controlled vocabularies for
folklore
General
•
•
•
Refine prototype record description
Broaden scope of test collection
Encode sample materials using prototype
record description
THANKS!
QUESTIONS?
Non-circulating collection of more than 16,000 recent* and historically
significant trade books for youth, birth through high school, plus review
copies of nearly all trade books published in the U.S. in the current
year.
FOCUS
Folktale and storytelling collection (1200+volumes) 1880-2010
Local records imported into Koha ILS
FACET EXEMPLARS
AIP (1961-1965):
LISA (1969/1963)
Property
Object
Method
Property
Material
Material
Operation
System
Operation
Process
Equipment
Emphasis
Type of work
Footer
API (1966)
Phenomenon
Operating condition
Place
Time
Place
Common Subdivision
Living organism
HIGH LEVEL CATEGORIES
Ranganathan Shera/Egan
Prieto-Diaz
Aitchison
Aristotle
>Personality
>Matter
>Energy
>Space
>Time
>Function
>Objects
>Medium
>Systemtype
>Functional
area
>Setting
>Entities, things,
objects
>Kinds or types/
systems and
assemblies
>Actions and
activities
>Applications
and purposes
>Space, place,
location and
environment
>Time
>Substance
>Quality
>Quantity
>Relation
>Place
>Time
>Position
>State
>Action
>Affection
>Product
>Agent
>Tools
>Act
>Object of
action
>Space
>Time
INFLUENCES
Kuhlthau’s (2005) call for greater connection between the
study of users' information-seeking behaviors and the
design of information retrieval systems
On the Record: Report of The Library of Congress Working
Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (2008).
• integrating user-contributed data into library catalogs
(4.1.2),
• encouraging application of—and cross-referencing with—
other controlled subject vocabularies (4.3.3),
• supporting ongoing research about bibliographic control
(5.1.2).
STUDY OVERVIEW : TASK ANALYSIS
• Repertoire of techniques (Vakkari, 2003)
– Commonly associated with user-centered interface design
– Also used to investigate information-seeking processes
• Task is information-seeking activity necessary to
complete a goal (cf. Xie, 2008).
• Working Minds: A Practitioner's Guide to Cognitive
Task Analysis (2006). Crandall, Klein, Hoffman.
TASK ANALYSIS
• Repertoire of techniques (Vakkari, 2003)
– Commonly associated with user-centered interface design
– Also used to investigate information-seeking processes
• Task is information-seeking activity necessary to
complete a goal (cf. Xie, 2008).
• Working Minds: A Practitioner's Guide to Cognitive
Task Analysis (2006). Crandall, Klein, Hoffman.
OBSTACLES
DISCIPLINARY:
Tale names vary
Tale motif / theme variants
(Cinderella)
ACCESS / DISCOVERY:
Misunderstand use of
type and motif indexes
Publication overtakes indexing
Catalogs have limited
cross-references
STUDY OVERVIEW : FACET ANALYSIS
“Sorting of terms in a given field into homogeneous mutually
exclusive facets each derived from the parent universe by
a single characteristic of division.” (Vickery, 1960).
Steps:
Define the subject field
Examine materials that reflect user interests
Develop a list of characteristics, concepts or categories
Sort these terms into facets
FACET ANALYTICAL APPROACH:
Proper and rigorous practice of facet analysis by
observing the rules of logical division.
(Broughton, 2001, p. 67; Mills, 2004, p. 268)
(1)one characteristic of division is applied at a time [conceptual
analysis]
(1) division steps should be logical and proximate
(1)division should be exhaustive (Mills, 2004, pp. 551).
Footer
FACET ANALYSIS (FA)
FACETED CLASSIFICATION (FC)
FA - (analytical technique)
• Listing of characteristics of the entities in a universe (exhaustive,
mutually exclusive)
FC - (synthetic structure)
• Division of entities in a universe (by one characteristic at a time)
FC – (structure of synthesis)
• Synthesis – combine relevant facets:
– Schedule of terms for description
– Assignment of notation
FACET ANALYSIS
Identify domain / entities
• Mapping the scope
– (Context) Examine the domain
– (Content) Survey the literature
– (Users) Who? Information needs?
• Label/ sort
– Begin analysis with a list of “standard categories” (provisional guide)
PMEST/ Who/ Where/ How/ What/ When
– Result: set of homogeneous mutually exclusive groups (facets)
– Formulate every distinctive logical category and possible relation
• Cluster /order
– In-depth analysis of categories
– Cluster terms/ objects into arrays or groups which share a common
characteristic
LIMITATION
SMALL NUMBER OF SUBJECTS
COLLECTION = JUVENILE FOLKTALES
BIAS = COLLEAGUES
MITIGATION
PHASE 2: LIBRARIANS / TEACHERS / STORYTELLERS
INDEX AND VOCABULARIES INCLUDED IN ANALYSIS
ONE RESEARCHER CONDUCTED TASK ANALYSIS
/ ANOTHER FACET ANALYSIS
NEXT STEPS
Task
Conduct think-aloud tasks with scholars
Interview additional scholars
Interviews with practitioners
Facet analysis of interviews
Facet
Full facet analysis of classifications
and controlled vocabularies for folklore
Refine prototype record structure
Features task-focused facets
DISSEMINATION
Pirmann, C. iConference POSTER #54 Folktales and Folksonomies:
Investigating the Utility of Tags as a Means of Description for
Folktales.
New Models from Old Tools: Leveraging an Understanding of
Information Tasks and Subject Domain to Support Enhanced
Discovery and Access to Folktales. (2010). In Paradigms and
Conceptual Systems in Knowledge Organization, Proceedings of the
Eleventh International Conference of the International Society for
Knowledge Organization.
Facets, Search and Discovery in Next Generation Catalogs: Informing
the Future by Revisiting Past Understanding. (2010). In Paradigms
and Conceptual Systems in Knowledge Organization, Proceedings of the
Eleventh International Conference of the International Society for
Knowledge Organization.
Project report: Folktales and Facets: Final report to OCLC/ALISE
IDEALS: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14887
SPECIAL THANKS:
Betsy Hearne.
Practicum students:
Carrie Pirmann, Diana Weaver.
Student volunteers:
Laura Rancani, Tina Ladika, Anna Peterson, Daniel Burkhalter,
Ata Bird, and Patricia Rosario.
The Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS)
The Center for Children’s Books
Colleagues at the Metadata Roundtable
Sandy Wolf and Michael Norman
GSLIS Research Services:
Amit Kumar, Nav Khanal, and Adam Kehoe.
FACETS AND FOLKTALES
PHASE 1 FUNDED BY:
 OCLC/ALISE LISRG
 GRADUATE SCHOOL OF
LIBRARY & INFORMATION
SCIENCE, UIUC
Facets and Folktales: Study Overview
Phase One (Supported by OCLC/ALISE and ongoing)
– Task Analyses of scholarly informants' information
seeking
– Facet analysis of the collection and common access
methods
– Importing existing records into a KOHA implementation
– Developing a prototype for enhanced records.
Phase Two (Practitioner informants)
Phase Three (Lay informants)
COLLECTED DATA
INTERVIEWS
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORDS (local / WorldCat / Indiana University)
BOOK CONTENT (ToC / reviews / index / introduction – notes)
LITERATURE
TYPE and MOTIF INDICES
Aarne-Thompson-Üther
tale type and motif indexes
“some ideas have been so recurrent in tradition
that we may encounter and recognize them in a
great number of ‘texts’” (p. 209).
Tale type
narrative or plot structure
specific sequence of motifs.
Motif
recurring elements from which tales are
constructed. Thompson (1946):
actors,
items,
single incidents.
FOLKLORE
Fairy tales
Folktales
Definitions of folklore are largely idiosyncratic,
Three basic requirements:
1) the object under scrutiny must be conveyed either
orally or
informally demonstrated;
2) it must be traditional in nature; and
3) the object must have natural variants as a
consequence of its
informal transmission
(Brunvand, 1996).
TRADITIONS
Literary approach ORIGIN
Historical-geographic ORIGIN
Structuralist tradition FORM MEANING
Psychoanalytic school MEANING
Narrative structure tradition STYLE
Image credits:
Gazing child:
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6364197-lg.jpg
Lady with a horse:
http://lisb.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/
Rackham illustrations:
http://childillustration.blogspot.com/2009/11/willy-pogany-folktales.html