Building Crosswalks for Subject Access in Library Catalogues

[Dennis Ward]

  I would like to ask the group's opinion about an idea for setting 
up "crosswalks" between subject access points (like subject headings, 
classification numbers) and vocabularies that are better suited for a 
patron with a non-mainstream point of view.

  Our page at     http://lily.slis.ualberta.ca/nodewey/
describes our approach in more detail, and has links to a sample
database. The sample database houses a couple of feminist thesauri,
with links to "dummy" classification numbers. This is a
spinoff from a project that was addressing deficiencies in how
Dewey meets the needs of the feminist community, so originally we 
had links to Dewey numbers, and the basic search procedure was 
  1. navigate the thesaurus until a useful term was found
  2. follow a linkage to a matching Dewey number
  3. plug the Dewey number into a Web catalogue and get a virtual
     shelf list

Unfortunately the Dewey part of this came to a sad end due to
copyright issues, but our sample database gives an idea of how it 
would have worked. It would be possible to set up similar databases 
for other thesauri and add linkages to subject headings or 
classification systems (other than Dewey!). Our experience showed 
that building the linkages is quite time-consuming, but the latter 
stages of our project were built entirely through the Web, so the 
construction effort could be shared by participants who were widely 
distributed geographically.

  The database interface uses PHP and MySQL and runs on a tired old 
Pentium 166 Linux box, but response is still pretty quick. We likely 
will not have the resources to keep this site up in the long term, 
but will try to find a more permanent home for the web versions of 
the thesauri if there is interest.

  We welcome feedback about almost any aspect of this approach, and
would particularly be interested in comments and suggestions about
 - the basic idea
 - the user interface
 - whether libraries would welcome the use of such an approach by 
   patrons (recent versions of Web PACs seem to be less hospitable
   to direct searches that don't use a library-supplied form)

Please send responses directly to me so as not to burden the list,
unless it is felt that there are issues of general interest.

In closing this rather long message, I would like to express my
appreciation to all the participants on this list who have provided
me with much useful information over the years.

TIA, Dennis

Dennis Ward   <Dennis.Ward at ualberta.ca>
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Alberta