Non-Agricultural Databases and Thesauri: Retrieval of Subject Headings and Non-Controlled Terms in Relation to Agriculture

Autor/in	Bartol, Tomaz
Titel	Non-Agricultural Databases and Thesauri: Retrieval of Subject Headings and Non-Controlled Terms in Relation to Agriculture
Quelle	In: Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems, 46 (2012) 2, S.258-276 (19 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0033-0337
DOI	10.1108/00330331211221873
Schlagwörter	Syntax; Information Systems; Reference Materials; Databases; Agriculture; Indexing; Classification; Information Retrieval; Bibliographic Databases; Users (Information); Search Strategies + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Literaturnachweis; Datenbank; Landwirtschaft; Indexierung; Sacherschließung; Classification system; Klassifikation; Klassifikationssystem; literaturdatenbank; Benutzerprofil; Nutzer; Suchstrategie
Abstract	Purpose: The paper aims to assess the utility of non-agriculture-specific information systems, databases, and respective controlled vocabularies (thesauri) in organising and retrieving agricultural information. The purpose is to identify thesaurus-linked tree structures, controlled subject headings/terms (heading words, descriptors), and principal database-dependent characteristics and assess how controlled terms improve retrieval results (recall) in relation to free-text/uncontrolled terms in abstracts and document titles. Design/methodology/approach: Several different hosts (interfaces, platforms, portals) and databases were used: CSA Illumina (ERIC, LISA), Ebscohost (Academic Search Complete, Medline, Political Science Complete), Ei-Engineering Village (Compendex, Inspec), OVID (PsycINFO), ProQuest (ABI/Inform Global). The search-terms agriculture and agricultural and truncated word-stem agricultur- were employed. Permuted (rotated index) search fields were used to retrieve terms from thesauri. Subject-heading search was assessed in relation to free-text search, based on abstracts and document titles. Findings: All thesauri contain agriculture-based headings; however, associative, hierarchical and synonymous relationships show important inter-database differences. Using subject headings along with abstracts and titles in search syntax (query) sometimes improves retrieval by up to 60 per cent. Retrieval depends on search fields and database-specifics, such as autostemming (lemmatization), explode function, word-indexing, or phrase-indexing. Research limitations/implications: Inter-database and host comparison, on consistent principles, can be limited because of some particular host- and database-specifics. Practical implications: End-users may exploit databases more competently and thus achieve better retrieval results in searching for agriculture-related information. Originality/value: The function of as many as ten databases in different disciplines in providing information relevant to subject matter that is not a topical focus of databases is assessed. (Contains 5 figures and 6 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10