Beyond Subject Headings

Abstract

Higher education at the start of the twenty-first century is characterized by an increasing number of interdisciplinary fields. Accordingly, the library world is grappling with several important information access issues, including the need to identify relationships within interdisciplinary topics where information is proliferating and locating appropriate resources is increasingly difficult. The relevance and usefulness of controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings in emerging interdisciplinary fields and the suitability of conventional library tools for organizing and accessing digital information are in question. This paper discusses the role an ontology representing a subject domain can play in addressing these issues and uses women's studies as an example of an interdisciplinary field. This paper also proposes a methodology to identify ontology terms and their relationships in the field of women's studies that has potential application to other interdisciplinary fields. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of Library Resources & Technical Services is the property of American Library Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)