Teaching Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) to undergraduate students : a folksonomy driven approach

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Tomislav Ivanjko
• Editor: Anne Gilliland
• Editor: Sue McKemmish
• Editor: Hrvoje Stančić
• Editor: Sanja Seljan
• Editor: Jadranka Lasić-Lazić
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of information and Communication sciences)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Information and Communication Sciences

Abstract (english)

Teaching controlled vocabularies and classifications at an introductory level can be challenging in terms of clarifying theoretical notions and motivating the students. In this light, approaches where students are presented with real life data that illustrates key concepts can be very useful. This case study investigated the difference between subject description of a journal article when using uncontrolled vocabulary (free keywords) and controlled vocabulary (UDC notions) as compared to author keywords, title keywords and UDC notions added by the subject specialist. The study was carried out before and after students attended an undergraduate introductory course to the field of controlled vocabularies and classification systems with a special accent on using the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). The results confirmed two original hypotheses that UDC driven (post-course) tags will show a greater consistency and have higher agreement with the terms added by the subject specialist than free keyword (pre-course) tags. Since the study was carried out in an educational setting one of the goals of the study was to investigate the possible use of the study to illustrate the basic concept differences between uncontrolled and controlled vocabulary in the light of folksonomies and the use of UDC as a pre-coordinated term list.

• Keywords (english): folksonomies; UDC; controlled vocabulary; classification
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Publication title: INFuture 2013 : the Future of Information Sciences : Information Governance
• Numbering: pp. 97-103
• p-ISSN: 1847-8220
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:121402
• Publication: 2013
• Conference: Title: 4th International Conference “The Future of Information Sciences: INFuture2013 – Information Governance”; Location: Zagreb, Croatia; Start date: 2013-11-06; End date: 2013-11-08; Assembly type: Lecture
• Type of resource: Text
• Publisher: Department of Information and Communication Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Publishing place: Zagreb
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2022-10-20 13:09:20