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Article
Publication date: 1 November 2006

Karsten Nissen Pedersen

To contribute to and evoke ongoing reflections on librarians' professional identity, i.e. librarianship. Inherent hereto is a questioning of the feasibility of collections and…

1292

Abstract

Purpose

To contribute to and evoke ongoing reflections on librarians' professional identity, i.e. librarianship. Inherent hereto is a questioning of the feasibility of collections and collections control as basic constituents hereof. Instead, it is argued that an inquiry into proprieties of librarians' actual and potential tools allows for establishing firmer grounds for present and future librarianship.

Design/methodology/approach

In a number of analytical steps, the concept of librarianship is deconstructed.

Findings

Collections and collections control are shown to equal conceptual quicksand for librarianship at a time where access to information is largely outside librarians' control. Alternatively, an understanding of actual and potential librarians' tools may potentially provide firmer conceptual basis.

Practical implications

It is suggested that librarians are to reflect critically on the appropriateness of actual and potential tools applied.

Originality/value

Questions whether collections and collections control constitute a feasible primary constituent for librarianship. Suggests, instead, that firmer conceptual grounds for librarianship are to be established.

Details

New Library World, vol. 107 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 2005

Birger Hjørland and Karsten Nissen Pedersen

To suggest that a theory of classification for information retrieval (IR), asked for by Spärck Jones in a 1970 paper, presupposes a full implementation of a pragmatic…

3468

Abstract

Purpose

To suggest that a theory of classification for information retrieval (IR), asked for by Spärck Jones in a 1970 paper, presupposes a full implementation of a pragmatic understanding. Part of the Journal of Documentation celebration, “60 years of the best in information research”.

Design/methodology/approach

Literature‐based conceptual analysis, taking Spärck Jones as its starting‐point. Analysis involves distinctions between “positivism” and “pragmatism” and “classical” versus Kuhnian understandings of concepts.

Findings

Classification, both manual and automatic, for retrieval benefits from drawing upon a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, a consideration of theories of meaning, and the adding of top‐down approaches to IR in which divisions of labour, domains, traditions, genres, document architectures etc. are included as analytical elements and in which specific IR algorithms are based on the examination of specific literatures. Introduces an example illustrating the consequences of a full implementation of a pragmatist understanding when handling homonyms.

Practical implications

Outlines how to classify from a pragmatic‐philosophical point of view.

Originality/value

Provides, emphasizing a pragmatic understanding, insights of importance to classification for retrieval, both manual and automatic.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 61 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Available. Content available
124

Abstract

Details

New Library World, vol. 106 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 2005

Karen Spärck Jones

This short note seeks to respond to Hjørland and Pederson's paper “A substantive theory of classification for information retrieval” which starts from Spärck Jones's, “Some…

1414

Abstract

Purpose

This short note seeks to respond to Hjørland and Pederson's paper “A substantive theory of classification for information retrieval” which starts from Spärck Jones's, “Some thoughts on classification for retrieval”, originally published in 1970.

Design/methodology/approach

The note comments on the context in which the 1970 paper was written, and on Hjørland and Pedersen's views, emphasising the need for well‐grounded classification theory and application.

Findings

The note maintains that text‐based, a posteriori, classification, as increasingly found in applications, is likely to be more useful, in general, than a priori classification.

Originality/value

The note elaborates on points made in a well‐received earlier paper.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 61 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

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