User conceptualizations of derivative relationships in the bibliographic universe
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2017-0139 |
| Date | 09 July 2018 |
| Pages | 894-916 |
| Published date | 09 July 2018 |
| Author | Kim Tallerås,Jørn Helge B. Dahl,Nils Pharo |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
User conceptualizations of
derivative relationships in the
bibliographic universe
Kim Tallerås, Jørn Helge B. Dahl and Nils Pharo
Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science,
Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway
Abstract
Purpose –Considerable effort is devoted to developing new models for organizing bibliographic metadata.
However, such models have been repeatedly criticized for their lack of proper user testing. The purpose of this
paper is to present a study on how non-experts in bibliographic systems map the bibliographic universe and,
in particular, how they conceptualize relationships between independent but strongly related entities.
Design/methodology/approach –The study is based on an open concept-mapping task performed to
externalize the conceptualizations of 98 novice students. The conceptualizations of the resulting concept maps
are identified and analyzed statistically.
Findings –The study shows that the participants’conceptualizations have great variety, differing in detail
and granularity. These conceptualizations can be categorized into two main groups according to derivative
relationships: those that apply a single-entity model directly relating document entities and those
(the majority) that apply a multi-entity model relating documents through a high-level collocating node.
These high-level nodes seem to be most adequately interpreted either as superwork devices collocating
documents belonging to the same bibliographic family or as devices collocating documents belonging to a
shared fictional world.
Originality/value –The findings can guide the work to develop bibliographic standards. Based on the
diversity of the conceptualizations, the findings also emphasize the need for more user testing of both
conceptual models and the bibliographic end-user systems implementing those models.
Keywords User studies, Cataloguing, Ontologies, Metadata, Linked data, FRBR, Bibliographic systems,
Information modelling, Mental models, Conceptualizations
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
At the time of writing, science fictions fans battle in heated debates over whether the new
Alien and Blade Runner movies are part of the same fictional universe. The final season of
the television series Game of Thrones has been launched well ahead of the remaining
volumes in the book series that initially inspired it. Another anticipated television series is
an adaptation of the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which itself is a mash-up of Jane
Austen’s classic novel with the zombie craze in contemporary pop culture. Such entities
seem to orbit each other in a bibliographic universe, “just as the physical universe reels with
gravity and physical forces that propel, impel, and propel planets, stars, asteroids, and other
bodies to exist in relation to each other”(the ideas of Wilson, 1968, as interpreted by
Smiraglia, 2014, p. 10). In practice, these entities can cover the same topics or even
transmedial storylines, share author and fictional characters, and belong to families of
works related through various types of derivations.
When organizing bibliographic data in information systems, it is crucial to control the
forces of the bibliographic universe in a way that increases the fitness for use.
One particular challenge to controlling such a universe is the application of complex
derivative relationships. This paper presents a study on how non-experts in bibliographic
systems map the bibliographic universe and, in particular, how they conceptualize
relationships between independent but strongly related works. The study is based on an
open concept-mapping task performed to externalize the bibliographic conceptualizations of
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 74 No. 4, 2018
pp. 894-916
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-10-2017-0139
Received 6 October 2017
Revised 12 February 2018
Accepted 18 February 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
894
JD
74,4
novice students in library and information science. The resulting conceptualizations are
analyzed statistically to reveal typical structures.
The paper has the following organization. Section 2 provides background information on
bibliographic modeling and the research question, while Section 3 describes the theoretical
framework. Section 4 provides an overview of previous research, and Section 5 presents the
research methodology. Sections 6-8 convey the results, discussion, and concluding remarks.
2. Background
In bibliographic systems, relationships are indirectly applied based on descriptive metadata
expressing shared characteristics (Tillett, 2001) about responsibility, topicality, and
publishing events. Other bibliographic relationships, such as adaptations and non-trivial
derivations, cannot be applied in as a straightforward way but are included as elements in
existing bibliographic models. These includethe Library Reference Model (LRM) (Riva et al.,
2017), the latestformalization of models belongingto the so-called FRBR family[1]. TheLRM
includes the original FRBR entities for works, expression (of works), and manifestations
(of expressions). Together, these W/E/M[2] entities enable representing both successive
derivative relationships, such as new marginally changed editions (enforcing a new
manifestation entity), and more significant modifications, such as a translation (enforcing a
new expression entity). In addition, the LRM provides derivative relationships directly
between works, for example, in cases when one work has served as inspiration for another.
The LRM specifications state that themodel was developed based on what arebelieved to
be important entities and relationships for users of bibliographic systems. The users are
representedthrough a set of specific user tasks (e.g. to explore),which should be facilitated by
“the support of discovery by making relationships explicit, by providing contextual
informationand navigation functionality”(Rivaet al., 2017, p. 10). In modelslike the LRM, the
included elements and, not least, theirstructural organizationrepresent a conceptualizationof
the bibliographic universe, a simplified, abstract model of what exists in that particular
universe of discourse. According to theories on mental models (Norman, 2013), users
interacting with information systems depend heavily on their own conceptualizations
when solving tasks. Thus, to facilitate, for example, the exploration task as defined by the
LRM, the conceptualizations facilitating “contextual information and navigation
functionality”(Riva et al., 2017, p. 10) should reflect the conceptualizations of the users.
A repeated claim is that bibliographic models lack proper user testing (see e.g. Coyle,
2016; Pisanski and Žumer, 2010a; Zhang and Salaba, 2009). The models typically reflect
experts’accumulated ideas about important user tasks ( for instance, the LRM builds on
tasks that can be traced back to the bibliographic pioneer Cutter (1904)). Pisanski and
Žumer (2010a, b, 2012) examined users’mental models of W/E/M entities but mostly
evaluated the resemblance between mental models and W/E/M structures as they are
mandated by the FRBR model. Although this approach has provided valuable insights into
users’verification of that particular model, it could be beneficial to complement this research
by testing users independent of an already-given structure. Another motivation for the
present study is found in the bibliographic universe characterized by intertextuality and
transmedia franchises generating immense numbers of complex derivative relationships, as
exemplified in the introduction. Studies focusing on user conceptualizations in that
particular context have not been found.
Thus, this paper is motivated by both the dearth of user testing in the domain of
bibliographic modeling in general and the lack of knowledge on how users conceptualize
derivative relationships in particular. These gaps lead to the following research question:
RQ1. How do users conceptualize derivative relationships between entities in the
bibliographic universe?
895
The
bibliographic
universe
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