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 SIMS 202 Information Organization and Retrieval  

Assignment 3 

Assigned 9/07. Due 9/14.

The goal of this assignment is to get you familiar with working with metadata that has been assigned to information artifacts.

The Art and Architecture thesaurus is located online at http://shiva.pub.getty.edu/aat_browser. This thesaurus contains hierarchical facets along with other kinds of information. A nice glossary describing this thesaurus can be found at http://shiva.pub.getty.edu/aat_browser/aat_help.html#gloss. Useful descriptions describing relationships are at http://shiva.pub.getty.edu/aat_browser/aat_faq.html#relationships) The types of information supplied by this thesaurus can be found at http://shiva.pub.getty.edu/aat_browser/titles.html.

Now go to the UC Berkeley Architecture slide library search site (called SPIRO), at http://shanana.berkeley.edu/spiro. This slide library has been assigned terms from the AAT thesaurus, along with other kinds of metadata.

Click on the link "Building or Object Title" to see a list of all the buildings that can be referenced by name. You can copy names of buildings from this listing and paste them into the search form.

Do a query on the building title "Guggenheim Museum" in the Building or Object Title entry form. The system should return 7 slides. Click on the thumbnail for the first slide, whose Image ID number is 93-128-008. You'll see a view of the AAT thesaurus terms that have been assigned to it (along with other kinds of metadata).

Please turn in answers to the following questions.

(1) Use the SPIRO search pages to create three queries, each consisting of two different kinds of metadata, that will cause the system to retrieve this slide in particular (it can retrieve other slides as well). For each of these three queries, report on

    (i) the metadata types
    (ii) the value you input for the metadata types
    (iii) the number of slides returned.
For example, the search just done would be shown as:
    (i) Building or Object Title
    (ii) "Guggenheim Museum"
    (iii) 7 slides returned
(Except this example only uses one kind of metadata, and we want you to use two.) Remember that the result of the query must return as part of its results the slide 93-128-008. Vary the metadata and values you use as much as possible.

(2) The query page restricts the user in certain ways. What type(s) of query does this search interface prevent you from being able to formulate for question (1)?

(3) How does the organization of metadata at the top levels for SPIRO differ from the organization of the AAT seen in the Getty Museum web site? (Hint: Browse some of the AAT thesaurus terms that appear in the SPIRO slides.)

(4) Look at SPIRO slides numbered 93-128-001, 93-128-002, 95-132-014, 93-079-002, 92-085-013, 92-085-014.

    (4a) Sketch out a hierarchical classification that includes all of these slides using their associated metadata (pen and paper is fine). Use the metadata types Source, Location, and View Description. You don't need to fill in values for metadata that is not present in these slides. Use the object ID as the bottom level of the hierarchy.

    (4b) Why can't you use the object title at the bottom level of the hierarchy?