Metadata elements preferred in searching and assessing relevance of archived television broadcast by scholars and students in media studies: Towards the design of surrogate records

TY - BOOK

T1 - Metadata elements preferred in searching and assessing relevance of archived television broadcast by scholars and students in media studies

T2 - Towards the design of surrogate records

AU - Kirkegaard, Brian

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - The present doctoral work concerns the investigation of three aspects of scholars’ and students’ information seeking behaviour in a television broadcast context, and the associated implications for design and construction of metadata elements in surrogate records in future broadcast retrieval systems.  The three aspects of information seeking behaviour in focus are information need characteristics, preferred search entries, and application of relevance criteria.  The thesis provides considerations regarding the construction of surrogate records for broadcasts in the Danish national collection of television broadcasts at the State and University Library in Aarhus.  At present, no surrogate records exist for the collection, and hence no retrieval facilities are available for users.  To gather knowledge about the construction of surrogate records for a future broadcasts retrieval system, the present work focuses on three interconnected research areas: 1) aspects of users’ information seeking behaviour in relation to television broadcasts; 2) appropriate access points for television broadcasts; and 3) construction of surrogate records for television broadcasts.  Users’ information seeking behaviour is the behaviour connected to the purposive actions when seeking information in order to fulfil an underlying work task (Wilson, 2000, p. 49).  The present work inquires into three aspects of academics’ information seeking behaviour in a television broadcast context, namely: 1) characteristics of the users’ information needs; 2) the users’ search entry preferences; and 3) the users’ application of relevance criteria.  Investigation of these aspects of the academics’ information seeking behaviour reveals which television broadcast dimensions that are of importance for effective retrieval of television broadcasts.  Knowledge about these dimensions is translated to knowledge about the access points that are appropriate in surrogate records in future broadcast retrieval systems.  The appropriate access points are the metadata elements in surrogate records that ensure that users are provided with effective retrieval for fulfilment of their work task at hand.  Subsequently to identification of appropriate access points, we consider indexing approaches for construction of the access point in surrogate records.  The primary focus is on exploitation of information in readily available external sources, namely television schedules.  In addition, we cursorily discuss the benefits of exchanging surrogate records with operating archives.The epistemological foundation for the doctoral work is the cognitive integrated framework for information seeking and information retrieval (IR) (Ingwersen & Järvelin, 2005).  The framework builds upon the fundamental conception that concurrent consideration of research in information seeking and IR is advantageous for Library and Information Science research.  Further, the framework contests that in order to create an effective broadcast retrieval system, it is important to gather knowledge about users’ information seeking behaviour in the context of television broadcast.Methodologically the thesis is based on grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998), which is in concordance with the cognitive integrated framework.  Grounded theory emphasises inductive generation of theories, models and/or hypothesis from raw empirical data, rather than a deductive test of already established theories, models and/or hypothesis.  The thesis applies a triangulation of data collecting and data analysing methods, e.g., web questionnaire and in-depth follow-up interviews to reveal the academics’ information needs, and preferred access points for searching and assessing the relevance of television broadcasts.  With reference to the first research area concerning aspects of users’ information seeking behaviour in relation to television broadcasts, the investigation identifies five characteristics of the academics’ information needs.  These characteristics include that the academics’ broadcast needs are for known broadcasts, factual data about the broadcasts, or of a topical nature, whether the perception of the topic is clear or muddled.  With reference to research area two concerning identification of appropriate access points for television broadcasts, we find that broadcasts are mainly needed at the programmes level of granularity, but access at the serial and feature levels of granularity is also needed.  Further, the investigation identifies 28 search entries, and 32 relevance criteria.  Subsequently, 24 access points are identified to be appropriate in relation to a future broadcast retrieval system, including novel as well as previously identified access points.  The function of each access point is discussed, and recommendations provided regarding the value of the access points in a future broadcast retrieval system.  With reference to the third research area concerning the construction of access points in surrogate records for television broadcasts, the results show that the information available in the television schedules is generally useful for descriptive indexing, while of no or minor value for subject indexing.  Exchange of surrogate records is valuable as a supplement for construction of the identified appropriate access points, only.In brief, the thesis expands our knowledge on academics’ information needs and access points for searching and relevance assessment in a television broadcast context, and the implications for design of surrogate records that are essential for facilitating the recognized behaviour.  Hereby, it provides novel research, which is important for construction of surrogate records in future broadcast retrieval systems.

AB - The present doctoral work concerns the investigation of three aspects of scholars’ and students’ information seeking behaviour in a television broadcast context, and the associated implications for design and construction of metadata elements in surrogate records in future broadcast retrieval systems.  The three aspects of information seeking behaviour in focus are information need characteristics, preferred search entries, and application of relevance criteria.  The thesis provides considerations regarding the construction of surrogate records for broadcasts in the Danish national collection of television broadcasts at the State and University Library in Aarhus.  At present, no surrogate records exist for the collection, and hence no retrieval facilities are available for users.  To gather knowledge about the construction of surrogate records for a future broadcasts retrieval system, the present work focuses on three interconnected research areas: 1) aspects of users’ information seeking behaviour in relation to television broadcasts; 2) appropriate access points for television broadcasts; and 3) construction of surrogate records for television broadcasts.  Users’ information seeking behaviour is the behaviour connected to the purposive actions when seeking information in order to fulfil an underlying work task (Wilson, 2000, p. 49).  The present work inquires into three aspects of academics’ information seeking behaviour in a television broadcast context, namely: 1) characteristics of the users’ information needs; 2) the users’ search entry preferences; and 3) the users’ application of relevance criteria.  Investigation of these aspects of the academics’ information seeking behaviour reveals which television broadcast dimensions that are of importance for effective retrieval of television broadcasts.  Knowledge about these dimensions is translated to knowledge about the access points that are appropriate in surrogate records in future broadcast retrieval systems.  The appropriate access points are the metadata elements in surrogate records that ensure that users are provided with effective retrieval for fulfilment of their work task at hand.  Subsequently to identification of appropriate access points, we consider indexing approaches for construction of the access point in surrogate records.  The primary focus is on exploitation of information in readily available external sources, namely television schedules.  In addition, we cursorily discuss the benefits of exchanging surrogate records with operating archives.The epistemological foundation for the doctoral work is the cognitive integrated framework for information seeking and information retrieval (IR) (Ingwersen & Järvelin, 2005).  The framework builds upon the fundamental conception that concurrent consideration of research in information seeking and IR is advantageous for Library and Information Science research.  Further, the framework contests that in order to create an effective broadcast retrieval system, it is important to gather knowledge about users’ information seeking behaviour in the context of television broadcast.Methodologically the thesis is based on grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998), which is in concordance with the cognitive integrated framework.  Grounded theory emphasises inductive generation of theories, models and/or hypothesis from raw empirical data, rather than a deductive test of already established theories, models and/or hypothesis.  The thesis applies a triangulation of data collecting and data analysing methods, e.g., web questionnaire and in-depth follow-up interviews to reveal the academics’ information needs, and preferred access points for searching and assessing the relevance of television broadcasts.  With reference to the first research area concerning aspects of users’ information seeking behaviour in relation to television broadcasts, the investigation identifies five characteristics of the academics’ information needs.  These characteristics include that the academics’ broadcast needs are for known broadcasts, factual data about the broadcasts, or of a topical nature, whether the perception of the topic is clear or muddled.  With reference to research area two concerning identification of appropriate access points for television broadcasts, we find that broadcasts are mainly needed at the programmes level of granularity, but access at the serial and feature levels of granularity is also needed.  Further, the investigation identifies 28 search entries, and 32 relevance criteria.  Subsequently, 24 access points are identified to be appropriate in relation to a future broadcast retrieval system, including novel as well as previously identified access points.  The function of each access point is discussed, and recommendations provided regarding the value of the access points in a future broadcast retrieval system.  With reference to the third research area concerning the construction of access points in surrogate records for television broadcasts, the results show that the information available in the television schedules is generally useful for descriptive indexing, while of no or minor value for subject indexing.  Exchange of surrogate records is valuable as a supplement for construction of the identified appropriate access points, only.In brief, the thesis expands our knowledge on academics’ information needs and access points for searching and relevance assessment in a television broadcast context, and the implications for design of surrogate records that are essential for facilitating the recognized behaviour.  Hereby, it provides novel research, which is important for construction of surrogate records in future broadcast retrieval systems.

M3 - Ph.D. thesis

SN - 978-87-7415-305-4

BT - Metadata elements preferred in searching and assessing relevance of archived television broadcast by scholars and students in media studies

PB - [Danmarks Biblioteksskole]

CY - Aalborg

ER -