Finding the Concept, Not Just the Word
A Librarian’s Guide to Ontologies and Semantics

Brandy King (Author), Kathy Reinold (Author)

9781843343189, Elsevier Science

Paperback / softback, published 30 August 2008

224 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

"…within its pages are some extremely important ideas." --Library Review"...an excellent, well written summation of the concepts and the technology involved. …an extensive list of additional resources." --The Electronic Library"…highly recommended to all information managers." --The Electronic Library

Aimed at students and professionals within Library and Information Services (LIS), this book is about the power and potential of ontologies to enhance the electronic search process. The book will compare search strategies and results in the current search environment and demonstrate how these could be transformed using ontologies and concept searching. Simple descriptions, visual representations, and examples of ontologies will bring a full understanding of how these concept maps are constructed to enhance retrieval through natural language queries. Readers will gain a sense of how ontologies are currently being used and how they could be applied in the future, encouraging them to think about how their own work and their users' search experiences could be enhanced by the creation of a customized ontology.

Part 1 Understanding ontologies: Organizing knowledge
Ontologies in semantic search
Creating an ontology
Building an ontology from existing components. Part 2 Semantic technologies: Natural language processing
Using metadata to add semantic information
Other semantic capabilities. Part 3 Case studies: Theory and practice: Biogen Idec: Using semantics in drug discovery research
The Center on Media and Child Health: Using an ontology to explore the effects of media
Partners Health Care System: semantic technologies to improve clinical decision support
MINDSWAP: Using ontologies to aid terrorism intelligence gathering. Part 4 Advanced topics: Languages for expressing ontologies
Tools for building ontologies. Part 5 Transitions to the future: Challenges and opportunities: using semantics today.

Subject Areas: Library, archive & information management [GLC]