What are We Thinking?:
Using Faceted Classification and Tagging to
Enhance Subject Access to the Public Mind
Elise Dunham
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
University of Connecticut
SAA MDOR Meeting
August 13, 2014
@elisedunham
#saa14
#mdor14
Roper Center Services
Datasets
Question Text, Response Categories,
& Marginals
The Power of iPOLL
This day in history…
Current events
Clinton’s visit to UConn=Women in Politics
Nixon resignation, August 8, 1974
Civil Rights Act of 1964, July 2, 1964
MH17=Air Safety in Wake of Disaster
Topics: FAMILY EQUALITY SEX GROUPS
The Power of iPOLL
Goals
Develop system for concept-based classification
of manageable content
Implement workflows for identifying
conceptual links between content at point of
acquisition/creation
Benefits of Faceted Classification & Tagging
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Flexible & agile
Indexer friendly
End user friendly
“Quick” startup
Iterative Project Steps
• Read & learn
– The Accidental Taxonomist, Heather Hedden
– Simmons GSLIS Taxonomy & Controlled
Vocabulary course, Heather Hedden
– ICPSR & NYT vocabularies
– Concepts: FRSAR, LC FAST, Syntactic Indexing
• Develop aboutness model to identify facets
Iterative Project Steps cont’d
• Develop controlled set of tags after analyzing:
– Current iPOLL Topics
– Topics at a Glance
– User searches
• Develop backward- and forward- compatible
infrastructure
• Assign tags to content
Methodology
Study
Survey Samples
Sample Description
Primary source
Variables
Survey questions
Types
Secondary source
Press releases
Power of iPOLL briefs
Topics
Challenges
• Public opinion=inherently controversial
• Tensions between theoretical purity &
implementation
• Survey questions are sometimes shorter than
a tweet
Ideas Moving Forward
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Tag-a-thon
Outside review
Formal user testing/analysis
Linked data: be ready
Thank you!
Elise Dunham
elise.dunham@uconn.edu
@elisedunham
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
www.ropercenter.uconn.edu
@ropercenter
Resources
GESIS, “Improving precision and recall in study retrieval: a concept for thesaurus-based syntactic
indexing,” IASSIST Conference, 2014, http://www.library.yorku.ca/binaries/iassist2014/2F/2014_2F_Siegers.pptx
Heather Hedden, The Accidental Taxonomist, 2010.
Alexis C. Madrigal, “How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood,” 2014-01-02,
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/how-netflix-reverse-engineeredhollywood/282679/
OCLC Research, FAST, http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/fast.html?urlm=159754
Maja Zumer, Athena Salaba, and Marcia Lei Zeng, “Functional Requirements for Subject Authority
Records (FRSAR): A Conceptual Model of Aboutness,” from Asian Digital Libraries: Looking Back
10 Years and Forging New Frontiers, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 4822, 2007, pp
487-492, http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-540-77094-7_62#page-1