Ice-Cube(sm): Visual Representation and Navigation of LCSH Facets

[Gerry McKiernan]

                       _Ice-Cube(sm):_
     Visual Representation and Navigation of LCSH Facets

    In a recent posting [I believe it was this week],
I inquired about any effort that has sought to perform
a Facet Analysis on the Library of Congress Subject Headings
(LCSH). Those who have responded to this query indicated that
they were not aware of any current effort.

    With the expectation that this will be done some
way, some day, it has occurred to me that there will be
a need to represent and navigate the Facets once they
are identified. For this awesome task, I propose
the creation of a Information Space Cube [Let's call
it Ice-Cube(sm) [:->]

    From a Facet Analysis, one could expect that every
LC subject heading could be assigned to every and all
facets to a matter of degree. A particular subject
will certainly be a member of more than one facet category
 [Of of course, a particular facet would also be a member of

more than one higher facet]. For the sake of argument
let's assume that ten major facets were established for
each LC subject heading [Below the Meta-Facet level, there
of course would be SubFacet levels in which a specific
subject heading would hold membership; again let's say
that at the first SubFacet level there are ten sub-facet
categories [What can I say, I'm feeling digital today
[hey that rhymes [:->]]

   At the Meta-Facet level, a specific subject would
have the possibility of having a value assigned to each
facet for that level [Let's say, we discover through
Algorithmic Magic, that these values can range from
One (1) through 10 (ten) [Boy, Am I Digital] and that
each assigned value represents the relative semantic
weight that the particular subject has for a given facet
at a given Facet

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  Thus, for example, a specific subject heading, would
be represented by a statement that consisted of a set
of relative weights [Zero to 9] for ten facets [in facet order of
course [:->]]

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  The Ice-Cube(sm) would be a construct consisting of each
of the ten facets on each the X axis, Y axis and the Z axis.
A given subject heading would be located within Ice-Cube(sm)
at the coordinates of the relative weight of the subject
for each Facet at a given facet level [Weights could vary from
Absolute Zero to 9.9999 etc. [We'd need to set a threshold -
up to 10 decimal places [Oops, there I go again Being Digital
[With apologies to Negroponte] [Hey, Decimals are Digital![:->]
Other LC Subject Headings with a similar facet statement
would have a similar location within the Ice-Cube(sm).
Hopefully, [if we make the appropriate sacrifices to the
Automated System Gods and Goddesses and the Comp Sci Gurus]
subject headings with the same facet profile [and hopefully
'meaning' [whatever that may be in the Faceted Universe]
would be clustered together for subsequent navigation.

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  Of course, we need to have different Ice-Cube levels to
allow users to browse from the MetaFacet level to SubFacet levels
[We'd need a sub-cube for each of the Meta-Facet categories
indicating the relatively associations of sub-facets at
the sub-facet level] [The Meta-Facet level would of course
be called the Ice-Cream(sm) [Cream raises to the top - get
it]

 [If You Can Follow this Logic, Read-On, Otherwise Press 'Delete']

  Ice-Cube(sm) would then be the interface for the display of
the LCSH as an interface to an LCSH OPAC. Users would browse
subjects by interacting with them within the Ice-Cube(sm).
The interaction within a Faceted OPAC (a FacPac ? [:->]
will be the topic of another posting in the near future
[Can you wait?]

  [I was going to call this metaphor Ice-Cubed - Ice to the
Third Power, but I don't have a superscript on this SGI Indy {:-(]

  Certainly, other metaphors can be considered for mapping
and displaying the faceted essence of a subject heading,
including those in my clearinghouse devoted to Information
Visualization, _The Big Picture_ available at URL

   http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/BigPic.htm

  I can see myself moving from my Cubist phase to some
Out-of-the Box [:->] thinking to consider a spheroid metaphor;
in that case I'd call it ... _The Whole Ball of Wax_ -
it's certainly more global or at least globular {:->]

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  All of the above sounds very mathematical. Can anyone
tell me what branch of math I working in here. [I'd
like to post to the appropriate Math groups two/too].

  But seriously folks, I'd very much appreciate any and all
information about efforts to display and/or visualize
facet associations, LCSH or otherwise.

  [Afterthought: How about the facet analysis of other
thesauri]

  <h1> Thanks </h1>

Gerry McKiernan
Curator, CyberStacks(sm)
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/

            "What's It All About, Alfie?"

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