Finding images in an online public access catalogue: Analysis of user queries, subject headings, and description notes

Youngok Choi, Ingrid Hsieh-Yee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined user queries for images in an online public access catalogue and how Library of Congress subject headings and description notes supported such queries. It found searchers made light use of Boolean operators; subject domain and format seemed to influence query development and reformulation; and neither subject headings nor description notes supported user queries well. Analysis of terms and concepts in user queries revealed that end users tended to search by subject concepts and the physical format of images.While the subject concepts used by end users for searching and the subject concepts used by professional indexers for indexing were found to be similar, different vocabularies were used by these two groups. The implications of vocabulary differences for image indexing and searching were discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)271-295
Number of pages25
JournalCanadian Journal of Information and Library Science
Volume34
Issue number3
StatePublished - Sep 2010

Keywords

  • Description notes for image retrieval
  • Image indexing
  • Image query analysis
  • Image retrieval
  • Image search
  • LC subject headings
  • Online catalog

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems
  • Library and Information Sciences

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