1. Select and Cite an Exemplar Indexing (Documentary) Unit
Identify all top index terms associated with this documentary unit in your database (to the extent possible or practical).
West, S. (2014, October 13). Exploration Station pattern. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/exploration-station
All top index terms associated with the above documentary unit:
brioche-tuck, female, halfcircle-shape, male, one-piece, seamless, short-rows, stripes-colorwork, top-down, unisex, worked-flat, written-pattern
2. Exhaustivity
How large is the indexing vocabulary of the index, i.e., the number of unique terms in the vocabulary? Explain how you figured this out. If you had to guess, explain the reasoning behind your guesses.
The number of unique terms is approximately 692 (+/- 30-40 terms). I calculated this by counting each facets’ displayed index terms (a selection of some shown in Figure 1). The (+/-) is given to account for any duplicate terms across facets that I did not account for in my category by category count. The possibility of duplicate terms is particularly possible in hook and needle sizing across knitting and crochet, as there is overlap of numeration (ie. 3 mm hook and 3 mm needle).
Figure 1
On average, about how many terms are assigned to each documentary unit? Explain how you figured this out. If you had to guess, explain the reasoning behind your guesses.
The average terms assigned to each unit are approximately 10. I arrived at this estimation by averaging 10 documentary units’ terms. The selection had a relatively average distribution (12, 4. 13, 9, 16, 10, 7, 7, 14, 8) which signaled to me that they were representative of a likely curve to most other documentary units. I also selected the top 10 “most popular” with no other facets selected, as I felt that many users would follow the tagging processes of popular user posts in an effort to match their success.
Does the number of index terms assigned to documentary units constitute high or low exhaustivity and explain the rationale for your judgment.
Number of documentary units: 842,000 (as of 1:30, March 25, 2019)
Estimated number of terms assigned per documentary unit: 10
Estimate of total number of indexing terms assigned per document: 8,420,000
In my evaluation, I consider this to be highly exhaustive, and a likely by-product of the manual indexing by users when uploading each documentary unit. In order to maximize their “reach” (the possibility that another user will see the documentary unit of another), many users will apply as many tags as possible: “irrelevant” tags to maximize exposure are common on social media sites, and Ravelry is likely to experience this as well. However, the highly exhaustive nature does ensure that users using the index to browse will be able to find highly relevant results as well. Due to the limited number of unique terms and the highly controlled vocabulary, the relevance is increased even further.
3. Thematic Specificity
Discuss the thematic specificity of the index. Provide some illustrative examples of index terms that are typical in their thematic specificity. I recommend that you review the definition of thematic specificity from the class lecture before you answer this question.
I will use the documentary unit from (question 1) in this discussion:
West, S. (2014, October 13). Exploration Station pattern. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/exploration-station
All top index terms associated with the above documentary unit:
brioche-tuck, female, halfcircle-shape, male, one-piece, seamless, short-rows, stripes-colorwork, top-down, unisex, worked-flat, written-pattern
Figure 2 shows the documentary unit overview including terms:
( Figure 2 )
Thematic specificity refers to “closeness of fit” to main themes and sub-themes, with high specificity referring to terms that illustrate numerous details rather than only main ideas, and low the opposing situation.
In the case of the selected documentary unit in this example, the thematic specificity is relatively high. I will explain this in light of a few groupings of index terms:
Group 1: user: female, male, unisex
Group 2: technique: brioche-tuck, halfcircle-shape, one-piece, seamless, short-rows, stripes-colorwork, top-down, worked-flat
Group 3: execution type: written-pattern
As Ravelry’s controlled vocabulary does not have terms that address “Style” of documentary units, the specificity of the units will be evaluated for how well they illustrate the main and sub-themes of construction. The primary purpose of Ravelry is to connect users to documentary units they can use to “make things:” so the construction themes are the primary concern of the index.
In the case of my second grouping (Group 2: technique), the construction process of the documentary unit is described with depth. The terms that address the main themes of construction are: halfcircle-shape, and one-piece. With only these two terms, the documentary unit would be tagged with enough information to be retrieved by a user with some relevance to them. However, the terms which describe the construction sub-themes: brioche-tuck, seamless, short-rows, stripes-colorwork, top-down, and worked flat, illustrate a more detailed (and more specific) concern for construction. Rather than being worked “in the round” (on circular needles), this unit is worked flat. So a user seeking something with the construction sub-theme of “in-the-round” for their circular needles would not have to access this irrelevant documentary unit. The same can be said of each other sub-theme term.
4. Critique
Assess the appropriateness of the depth of indexing in terms of the type of documents being indexed, the information needs of the intended audience and maintainability the index. Maintainability includes both building the index and keeping it up to date.
High exhaustivity is best coupled with high thematic specificity: due to the numerous terms assigned, the index is best used when the large number of terms acts to produce highly thematically relevant results.
The users of Ravelry.com are seeking documentary units that they will make or use in some manner for their own creative process in fiber art, thus thematically relevant results are highly valued by them. Due to the nature of Ravelry as a social media site, as well as commercial retailer, the company is also best served by high exhaustivity: this will often result in users accessing results that are more relevant to them, and where it does not, it will put more results in front of the user that they may still consult or buy.
Additionally, the high exhaustivity allows users more choice when assigning terms to their documentary units during the upload process. This increased choice results in users who feel more empowered and able to contribute to the index, which encourages them to assist in maintaining the index. Many users update their index terms after feedback from other users who suggest additional more relevant or encourage less irrelevant terms, which is an excellent example how the highly exhaustive approach can actually increase maintainability in a social media setting.
As the documentary units are primarily commercial or social vehicles for users, I find the depth of indexing appropriate. Users of Ravelry are artists or hobbyists with specific creative goals, so an index with high thematic specificity will serve them better than one without; and any of the disadvantages of high exhaustively are outweighed by the advantages of allowing users to use the index terms to further their social interaction.