“Subjects”
Research Paper
By:
Ms. Bayo Elizabeth Cary
Writing Sample: Example Research Paper #2
Section
I.
Information Object: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for
Living
Descriptor: Book
A.
In
this book, Dr. Howard D. Cutler, an American
psychiatrist, interviews the Buddhist monk His Holiness the Dalai Lama (H. H.
the Dalai Lama) (B. Cary, personal communication, August
5, 2010).
Cutler believes that H. H. the Dalai Lama is happy (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). Cutler seeks to
uncover the roots of H. H. the Dalai Lama’s happiness (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). Through interviews
with H.H. the Dalai Lama, Cutler identifies what practices of H. H. the Dalai
Lama can be applied to the life of a lay person (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for
Living, presents a summary of the conversations between Cutler and H. H.
the Dalai Lama as well as advice on to how to live a happier life from both
himself and H. H. the Dalai Lama (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010).
B.
The
audience for this book could be individuals in search of books by and about H. H.
the Dalai Lama, individuals interested in self-help books regarding mental
health, or mental health professionals interested in how the mental health
field is evolving (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). This book would also be appropriate for individuals
who are interested in H. H. the Dalai Lama or anyone who would be interested in
H. H. the Dalai Lama’s recommendations for living a happier life (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
People who may consider themselves unhappy or discontent in some other way
could apply some of H. H. the Dalai
Lama’s recommendations to their life, in order to improve their quality of life
(B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). Mental health professionals may be able to
gain new helpful techniques to apply to the mental health services that they
deliver (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
C.
An
unlikely audience may be a religion student who is interested in having a
better grasp of the tenets of Buddhism (B. Cary, personal communication, August
5, 2010). The Art of Happiness: A
Handbook for Living, does not describe any of the Buddhist religion in
detail and, in my opinion, it is not dogmatic (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010). The Art of Happiness:
A Handbook for Living, is about achieving happiness regardless of an
individual’s religious preference (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010). Therefore, this book is not
really a Buddhist book per se (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, could easily be
tagged with any of the following terms, which apply to both the subject matter
of the book and its derivation (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010):
Section
II.
A.
What is “aboutness” (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010)? “Aboutness,”
is an information retrieval issue (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010; Hjorland, 2001). “Aboutness” has the same meaning as the word “subject” (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Hjorland, 2001). The concept of “aboutness”
is a relatively familiar term within the academic study of library cataloging
practices, although it is not always thought of as such (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010; P.D. Bruza, 2000). Therefore, the idea of compiling a list of
terms which refer to a subject’s “aboutness” should be relatively facile (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
However, I found it to be somewhat challenging (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010).
(*Note:
Information regarding the basic 15 D.C. elements was provided in my, Research Writing Paper 1. For additional clarification regarding the
definition of D.C. elements, their history, and how they are generally applied,
please refer to Research Writing Paper
1.)
The list of terms that were provided
for the category of object, according to what is currently defined as Dublin Core
by, was precise and concrete, in my opinion (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010). I was able to adequately
cover the “aboutness” of the object, with one word descriptors (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
However, when I attempted to use one word to describe the subject of the
book I was, for the most part, unable to do so (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). The
subject of the book covers more than can be expressed in a one word summary (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
I think the most effective subject search for The Art of Happiness: A
Handbook for Living, would be to use Boolean search terms or search phrases
(B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
B.
Since the inception of the Internet, the
search and retrieval of information on the web, has been an issue (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
There is a plethora of information and very few ways have been devised
to organize it all. Recommendations have
been made to improve Online Public Access Catalogs (O.P.A.C.) (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010; Young, 2004).
However, presently, most of those recommendations have yet to be
implemented by O.P.A.C.’s (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010;
Young, 2004).
Over the years, those same
recommendations have been adopted into the new and evolving web browsers and their
search engines (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Young, 2004). Frequent users of the various search engines
which are currently and widely available online, have gotten use to a certain
mode of query (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Young, 2004). However, the same search options and methods are
not presently available in O.P.A.C.’s in America, to the best of my knowledge (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Young, 2004). The dearth of organization and overall
availability of information, in O.P.A.C.’s, regarding resources provided to
Librarians in America, is to the chagrin of many library catalog searchers (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Young, 2004).
When I searched both Google and Yahoo, I
expected more book titles to be returned, which pertained to the subject areas
of both: happiness and Buddhism (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010). I have read many books on the
subject areas of both: Buddhism and happiness, and how the subject areas are
related to everything from: psychology, to physics, to the current empirical
beliefs related to the field of neuroscience; however, I did not see any of those
book titles listed (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The only book that was returned was: The
Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010). Clearly, more improvements
can still stand to be made to both web search engine browsers and their concomitant
search engines (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
Yet another suggestion for improving search
and retrieval on the web, which could be applied to both O.P.A.C.’s and web
search engines, is the addition of an “intelligent agent” (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). According to James Jensen, agents are not
completely autonomous; they rely on artificial intelligence to direct their
tasks and are capable of learning by example (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010; Jansen, 1997). Because
the agent is an extension of the computer and is capable of complex tasks, the
agent can carry out tasks on, behalf of the computer administrator (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010; Jansen, 1997). Jansen concludes: that an intelligent agent
may improve search and retrieval engines; combining intelligent agents with
search and retrieval engines could in fact improve retrieval rates (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010; Jansen, 1997).
C.
Subject searches have been a way to locate
items in a library for over a century now (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010; Hoffman, 2001). Charles
A. Cutter suggested that libraries
organize their objects by subject headings (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010; Hoffman, 2001). Some
objects in libraries are organized by subject headings while other objects are
not (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Hoffman, 2001). For this reason some objects in libraries are
difficult to locate (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Hoffman,
2001). Therefore, I had no idea how
difficult or easy it would be to locate: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook
for Living, in the WorldCat database (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010; Hoffman, 2001).
My first search was for
the key words psychiatrist and happiness (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010). The search returned 36
hits (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The number one hit was The Art of
Happiness: A Handbook for Living (B. Cary, personal communication, August
5, 2010). My second search was for key
words Howard D. Cutler and happiness (B. Cary, personal communication, August
5, 2010). There were 16 hits returned (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
The number one hit was The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
(B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
My third search was for the key words:
Dalai Lama and happiness (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). I received 317 hits (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). The
Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living was the 1st hit (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). The last
query was for key words: Buddhism and happiness (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). There
were 810 hits (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The first hit was The Art of Happiness: A
Handbook for Living (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). These were the most successful of the
searches (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). Had I used different terms, I would have
gotten varying results (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
There is another way that libraries are
considering implementing to increase their subject access hit count, and that
is through the utilization of social tagging (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010; Rolla, 2009). Social
tagging is a popular way of labeling objects (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010). It is used on the
Internet at many websites such as: delicious and fickr (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). The Library
of Congress Working Group, on the future of Bibliographic Control wants, along
with others, has suggested integrating social tagging into the library setting
(B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Rolla, 2009).
Social tagging and subject headings
would then be utilized concurrently (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010; Rolla, 2009). Individuals would
have an opportunity to compare the social tags on objects to the subject
headings on objects (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Rolla,
2009). This would grant patrons a fresh
perspective (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Rolla, 2009). Patrons would have a second opinion (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010; Rolla, 2009).
D.
Subject
headings are traditionally nonbiased (B. Cary, personal communication, August
5, 2010; Naun, 2006). When searching for,
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, therefore, theoretically, I
did not need to worry that there was some stigma attached to the book because
Buddhist principles are mentioned (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010). The purpose of the library is to
provide everyone equal access to all kinds of literature (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010; Naun, 2006).
Although the breadth and depth of collections vary from library to
library, variety and inclusiveness are always encouraged (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). For this
reason, I was hopeful that I would locate: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook
for Living, in the WorldCat online Catalog (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010).
I entered the key words: the Dalai
Lama and happiness, and came up with The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for
Living, as the 1st record retrieved (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). I
clicked on a detailed view of the record, and then I strolled down to the
subjects section of the record (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010). I clicked on the descriptor: Happiness--Religious
aspects – Buddhism (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). It led me to a list of 313 hits all having to
do with: happiness and Buddhism (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010).
According to a study conducted
by Julie Banks, contrary to what would seem to be normal, books with a greater
number of subject headings tend to circulate the least (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010; Banks, 2004). The
subject headings are so helpful at locating specific information, I would think
that the more subject headings the better (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010). The results I received
from the subject search were much more narrowly construed, than those that I
received when I initially conducted the search in Part II C (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). I was
not able, through my mix and match of terms, to come up with terms which
reflected what I was specifically searching for, as well as when I utilized the
terms which were provided by the library catalog (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010).
1.
While each of the subject headings that I
entered pulled up a different list of objects, The Art of Happiness: A
Handbook for Living, was always the first object on the list (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
As previously stated, there were different objects being pulled up for
each subject heading category that I entered, some categories pulled up more
than 1,000 hits, and some of less than 100 (B. Cary, personal communication,
August 5, 2010). I think that it is
helpful to have that variety available (B. Cary, personal communication, August
5, 2010). In that way, an individual can
chose between: additional objects that are closely related to their original
subject area, or further away from their original subject area (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
Part
III.
2.
The keyword Howard D.
Cutler was the best term for locating: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook
Living, via Yahoo and Bing (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
While the keywords: Dalai Lama and happiness were the best phrase for
locating: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook Living in WorldCat (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
Yahoo and Bing immediately pulled up: The Art of Happiness: A
Handbook for Living, as a book which Cutler had authored (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010). Because The Art of Happiness was a New
York Times bestseller, it is a rather popular text, and therefore well known on
the web, through its association with the author (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010).
In
WorldCat, the book: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, was
most easily retrieved because of its subject heading association to: H. H. the
Dalai Lama (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The subject headings, on the detailed record
of possible tagging terms which could be applied to: The Art of Happiness: A
Handbook for Living, all have to do with happiness and Buddhism or religion
and/or Buddhist popular works either directly or indirectly (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010).
There are not any subject headings listed
under: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, which pertain its
applicability to: the medical practice of psychiatry or the medical doctor who
is a contributing author and who actually wrote the book: Dr. Howard D. Cutler
(B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The WorldCat library system basically
classifies: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, as a “Buddhist”
book (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). However, the web’s search engines: Yahoo and Bing
classify: The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, as a book by the
psychiatrist Dr. Howard D. Cutler (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5,
2010).
There is an obvious case of mis-match between:
a library’s subject headings, WorldCat online data bases, as well as, mark-up
data (tags) provided by Yahoo and Bing, and the actual information which
pertains to the book itself (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The Hardcover text published by Riverbead,
plainly lists H. H. the Dalai Lama, as an author of the book as well (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
I wonder if anyone other than me actually read the book (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010).
B.
Controlled vocabularies are most useful
when used in conjunction with a closed system such as an O.P.A.C. (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010; Jourdrey, 2009). The vast amount of information available on
the Internet is not readily organized by a controlled vocabulary (B. Cary,
personal communication, August 5, 2010; Jourdrey, 2009). There are so many possibilities insofar as web data is concerned (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; Jourdrey, 2009). Controlled vocabularies not only have to be
developed but they also must be maintained constantly (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010; Jourdrey, 2009).
This takes a great deal of time and energy (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
Organizing the Internet would be a monolithic task, which potentially
means, that individual’s with access could post anything, and regardless of
when or where it was posted, everyone could access what you posted, no one
could access what you posted, or anything could be available on the “likert
scale” in between (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The benefits of a controlled vocabulary are
both: increased precision and increased
recall of objects (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010; McLain,
1987).
In a controlled vocabulary, in closed system,
such as a library, where there are professionals to label the objects, an original
controlled vocabulary can be constructed and maintained (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010; Jourdrey, 2009).
Searches which utilize an uncontrolled or semi-controlled vocabulary
tend to have decreased precision, and tend to return a lower hit count (B.
Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010).
.
However, information contained in web
search engines such as: Yahoo and Bing tend to contain an infinite amount of
information (B. Cary, personal communication, August 5, 2010). The information contained in web search
engines bodes amazing possibilities because of its vastness, whereas the O.P.A.C.’s
contain a finite amount of information (B. Cary, personal communication, August
5, 2010). I suggest that O.P.A.C.’s be connected
to the Internet through social networking sites, so that Individual’s can
directly “tweet” the books their reading to their friends (B. Cary, personal
communication, August 5, 2010).
Works
Cited
Banks, J. (2004). Does the Number of Subject Headings
on a Bibliographic Record Affect Circulation Intensity? Retrieved November 29,
2009, from: http://pdfserve.informaworld.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/747257_751309558_904054597.pdf
Hjorland, B. (2001).
Towards a Theory of Aboutness, Subject, Topicality, Theme, Domain, Field,
Content . . . and Relevance. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=107&sid=02cf1a12-64ac-4250-af5d-bd1b63e4450d%40sessionmgr110
Hoffman, H. H. (2001).
Subject Access to Works in Online Catalogs. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from: http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml;hwwilsonid=ETJY5CKNDVSTBQA3DILSFGGADUNGIIV0
Jansen, J. (1997,
March). Using an Intelligent Agent to Enhance Search Engine Performance.
Retrieved November 29, 2009 from: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/517/438
Joudrey, A. G. (2009).
The Organization of Information. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.
McLain, B. R. (1987).
Entry Point Depth and Online Search Using a Controlled Vocabulary.Retrieved
November 29, 2009 from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=107&sid=2fb0fda0-f926-4124-a46b-32da50a522cd%40sessionmgr111
Naun, C. C. (2006).
Objectivity and Subject Access in the Print Library. Retrieved November 29,
2009 from: http://pdfserve.informaworld.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/178900_751309558_903289652.pdf
P.D. Bruza, D. S.
(2000). Aboutness from a Commonsense Perspective. Retrieved November 29, 2009
from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=107&sid=df7aab12-5327-40b6-b7a4-e5dfbbbca336%40sessionmgr104
Rolla, P. J. (2009).
User Tags versus Subject Headings: Can User-Supplied Data Improve Subject
Access to Library Collections? Retrieved November 21, 2009 from: http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/gtx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&qrySerId=&inPS=true&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&searchId=R1&retrieveFormat=PDF¤tPosition=1&userGroupName=tall85761&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sort=DateDescend&docId=A203335838&noOfPages=11
Young, H. Y. (2004).
The Impact of Web Search Engines on Subject Searching in OPAC. Retrieved
November 29, 2009 from: http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/gtx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&qrySerId=&inPS=true&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&searchId=R2&retrieveFormat=PDF¤tPosition=1&userGroupName=tall85761&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sort=DateDescend&docId=A129629261&noOfPages=13
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