Classification and Indexing Section

Annual Report
September 2001 through October 2002

Scope Statement

The Section on Classification and Indexing focuses on methods of providing subject access in catalogues, bibliographies, and indexes to documents of all kinds, including electronic documents. The Section serves as a forum for producers and users of classification and subject indexing tools, and it works to facilitate international exchange of information about methods of providing subject access. It promotes standardization and uniform application of classification and indexing tools by institutions generating or utilizing bibliographic records. It initiates and gives advice about research in the subject approach to information, and it disseminates the results through open meetings and publications. It works closely with the other Sections of the IFLA Division of Bibliographic Control, with the IFLA Core Programme for Universal Bibliographic Control and International MARC (UBCIM), and with the IFLA Section on Information Technology. It is interested in provision of subject access in libraries and information services of all types

Membership

The section has 107 members (August 2002)

Officers

Chair and treasurer: Pia Leth

Secretary: Ia McIlwaine

Information Coordinator: Marcia L. Zeng

Newsletter editor: Max Naudi

The standing committe consists of 19 members and one corresponding member. The following nations are represented: Czech, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States. Pia Leth is chair and treasurer, Ia McIlwaine is secretary, Max Naudi is editor of the Newsletter and Marcia Zeng serves as information coordinator.

Meetings – August 2002, Glasgow

The Section had a committe meeting in two sessions during the Glasgow conference attended by 23, 21 persons respectively, observers included. The main discussion focused on our section´s site on IFLANET, the Newsletter and the National Reports as important ways to fullfill our goals and inform about our work. We discussed how to target more countries to contribute with national reports and how to find time at our meetings to concentrate more on trends and new developements in the field of knowledge organization. Plans for Berlin and Buenos Aires were also discussed. The idea of a new working group on tools available on the web was proposed by Marcia Zeng and Max Naudi.

The officers participated in the division´s officers meeting, held in two sessions, during the conference.

Projects and working groups

1. Guidelines for the construction of multi-lingual thesauri

The Working Group, chaired by Gerhard Riesthuis (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) met in Glasgow and also in Amsterdam in October for its last meeting. It is expected that a final draft can be prepared.

2. Subject Access of Web Sites and Digital Libraries

The Working Group on Subject Access of Web Sites and Digital Libraries that was set up at Bangkok, under the chairmanship of Marcia Zeng met in Glasgow. Marcia Zeng also made a presentation at the Division Open Forum. She asked for contributions from more countries and languages, 50 sites have been covered, but 34 of them were in English. She has set up a website with a form making it easy to fill in. It is taking the lead in collaboration with the Section on Bibliography in monitoring subject access on Web-based Gateways.

Publications

• Newsletter, two issues have been published during the current year, both as hard copies and on IFLANET.
• Subject Retrieval in a Networked Environment : a report by I.C. McIlwaine. – IFLA, UBCIM Programme 2002.
• Ensuring Interoperability among Subject Vocabularies and Knowledge Organisation Schemes : a methodological analysis. Marica Lei Zeng and Lois Mai Chan. – IFLA Journal vol. 28 no 5/6.
  

Conference Programmes and Workshops

Glasgow, 2002

The Section reported on its activities in the Open Forum of the Division of Bibliographic Control.

The Open Session held on Tuesday the 20^th August was entitled "Compatibilty and Integration in Subject Retrieval" comprising three presentations.

Dennis Nicholson, Subject-based interoperability: issues from the high level Thesaurus (HILT) project

The paper dealt with cross-searching by subject in UK libraries, museums, archives and electronic services.

Martin Kunz, Sachliche Suche in verteilten Ressourcen : ein kurzer Überblick über neurere Entwicklungen (Subject retrieval in distributed resources: a short overview of recent developments).

Subject-based retrieval in distributed resources and different methods was discussed with examples from MACS, CARMEN and Economics Crosswalk.

Marcia Lei Zeng and Lois Mai Chan, Ensuring interoperability among subject vocabularies and knowledge Organisation schemes: a methodological anaysis

The study analyzed methods used in recent projects aiming at improving interoperability

The Open Session was attended by around 120 persons and the papers were available in most of the official languages on IFLANET. Kunz paper was translated into English at the very last minute and therfore not on the IFLANET, but hard copies were distributed at the Open Session.

A joint workshop was held in Edinburgh with Cataloguing Workshop (with the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group) on Thursday 22^nd August entitled Interoperability: exchange of information between libraries, museums and archives.

Iaian Young, Da Chanan / Two languages: creating bi-lingual name authories

Gerhard J. A. Riesthuis, Teaching of information storage and retrieval at the Department for Information Science of the University of Amsterdam

Gordon Dunsire, Joined up indexes: interoperability issues in Z39.50 networks

Patricia Whatley, Classifying the drawn evidence: cross domain issues

Gerald Maier, Common Internet Portal for Libraries, Archives and Museums (BAM-Portal)

The workshop was attended by around 40 persons. The papers were translated into most of the official languages and available on IFLANET, except Whatleys paper that was not published.

Relationships with other Bodies

The Section continues to cooperate with other IFLA Sections and Divisions and with the Permanent UNIMARC Committee in various projects and activities.

Ia McIlwaine attended the 2002 meetings of the Professional Board, in her capacity as Chair of the Division of Bibliographic Control. She is also Vice Chair and Financial Officer of the Professional Committee at that meeting.

Pia Leth, Chair
6^th November 2002