RE: Requirements for notes

> From: Miles, AJ (Alistair) [mailto:A.J.Miles@rl.ac.uk] 
> Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 1:17 PM
> Subject: Requirements for notes
>
> This seems like a good moment to put out a call for 
> suggestions for exactly what types of note (e.g. editor-note, 
> hierarchy note) should be supported by SKOS-Core, and what 
> each note should contain.
> 
> Can I ask you to be as precise as possible in outlining what 
> each type of note should be used for.

Here is a survey of the note types in the vocabularies that I'm
currently dealing with: LCC, DDC, LCSH, MeSH, FAST, GSAFD.  They
basically fall into three classes, MARC21-A, MARC21-C, and Dewey.


MARC21-A Authorities Format
http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/ecadnote.html

* 667 - NONPUBLIC GENERAL NOTE (R)
General information about a 1XX heading for which a specialized note field
has not been defined.

* 670 - SOURCE DATA FOUND (R)
A citation for a consulted source in which information is found about the
1XX heading in an established heading record, an established heading and
subdivision record, a subdivision record or a reference record. The
information found in the source may also be present.

* 675 - SOURCE DATA NOT FOUND (NR)
A citation for a consulted source in which no information is found about the
1XX heading in an established heading record, an established heading and
subdivision record, or a subdivision record.

* 678 - BIOGRAPHICAL OR HISTORICAL DATA (R)
A summary of the essential biographical, historical, or other information
about the 1XX heading in an established heading record, an established
heading and subdivision record, or a subdivision record.

* 680 - PUBLIC GENERAL NOTE (R)
General information about a 1XX heading for which a specialized note field
has not been defined. The note is written in a form adequate for public
display.

* 681 - SUBJECT EXAMPLE TRACING NOTE (R)
Documents the use of the 1XX subject or authorized subdivision heading as an
example or reference in fields 260, 360, and/or 680 in another authority
record.

* 682 - DELETED HEADING INFORMATION (NR)
An explanation for the deletion of an established heading or subdivision
record from an authority file (Leader/05, value d). The replacement
heading(s) may be contained in subfield(s) $a.

* 688 - APPLICATION HISTORY NOTE (R)
Information that documents changes in the application of a 1XX heading.


MARC21-C Classification Format
http://www.loc.gov/marc/classification/eccdnote.html

* 680 - SCOPE NOTE  (R)
Information about the classification number or number span in field 153
(Classification Number) that describes its scope in the scheme identified in
field 084 (Classification Schedule and Edition).

* 681 - CLASSIFICATION EXAMPLE TRACING NOTE (R)
Information that documents the use of the 153 classification number or
number span in one record as an example or reference in fields 253, 353
and/or 6XX note fields in another record.

This field is primarily intended to serve as a tracing of the use of
classification numbers in examples and notes to assist classifiers in
updating records. 

* 683 - APPLICATION INSTRUCTION NOTE (R)
Instructions for applying tables, subarrangements, or additions to
classification numbers.

* 684 - AUXILIARY INSTRUCTION NOTE (R)
Information from, or reference to, a section of a classifier's manual or
other documentation. An auxiliary instruction note provides advice for
classifying in difficult areas, and describes policies and practices that
may accompany a classification schedule.

* 685 - HISTORY NOTE (R)
Information about the history of the use and meaning of a classification
number that is contained either in a 153 classification number field or in a
453/553 tracing field with subfield $w/3, Control subfield, code a.

* 686 - RELATIONSHIP TO SOURCE NOTE (R)
Information about the relationship of a number to the source edition when
the number is different from the standard number for the same topic in the
primary source edition. This field is used for numbers based on a source
other than the primary source, expansions, implemented options, and
adaptations. The information in this field is intended primarily for
computer processing or to guide classifiers and is often not written in a
form adequate for public user display.


Dewey

* ADD NOTE - GENERIC INSTRUCTION
* ADD NOTE - IDENTIFIED BY SYMBOL
* ADD NOTE - SCHEDULE NUMBER, PART OF 
* ADD NOTE - SCHEDULE NUMBER, FULL 
* ADD NOTE - TABLE NUMBER, PART OF 
* ADD NOTE - TABLE NUMBER, ADD OF 
* ADD NOTE - REFERRAL TO TABLE
* ADD NOTE - SEE REFERENCE
* ADD NOTE - SEE REFERENCE, SCATTERED
* ADD NOTE - STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS, ARE ADDED
* ADD NOTE - STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS, DO NOT ADD
* ADD NOTE - SUBDIVISIONS
* ADD TABLE NOTE - GENERIC INSTRUCTION
* ADD TABLE NOTE - IDENTIFIED BY SYMBOL
* ADD TABLE NOTE - SCHEDULE NUMBER, PART OF
* ADD TABLE NOTE - TABLE NUMBER, ALL
* ADD TABLE NOTE - TABLE NUMBER, PART OF
* ARRANGE ALPHABETICALLY NOTE
* ARRANGE BY AUTHOR NOTE
* ARRANGE CHRONOLOGICALLY NOTE
* ARRANGE NUMERICALLY NOTE
* ARRANGE BY TITLE NOTE
* BUILD NOTE
* BUILT NUMBER NOTE
* CLASS HERE NOTE
* CLASS ELSEWHERE NOTE
* CLASS ELSEWHERE NOTE - SCATTERED
* DEFINITION NOTE
* DISCONTINUED NOTE - VACATED NUMBER
* DISCONTINUED NOTE - PARTIALLY CHANGED NUMBER
* EDITOR NOTE
* EDITOR NOTE - FLAG
* FOOTNOTE - ADD
* FOOTNOTE - GENERIC
* FOOTNOTE - OPTION
* FOOTNOTE - STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS
* FOOTNOTE - STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS, DO NOT ADD
* FOOTNOTE - STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS, EXTRA ZEROS
* FOOTNOTE - STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS, MODIFIED
* FOOTNOTE - TABLE 2
* FORMER HEADING NOTE
* INCLUDING NOTE
* MANUAL NOTE
* MANUAL NOTE, LIKE
* MOST RECENTLY USED NOTE
* NEW SCHEDULE NOTE
* NOTATION NOTE - DO NOT USE
* OPTION NOTE
* OPTIONAL NUMBER NOTE
* PREFERENCE NOTE
* REFERENCE NOTE - SEE ALSO
* REFERENCE NOTE - SEE
* REFERENCE NOTE - SEE MANUAL
* REFERENCE NOTE - SEE SCATTERED
* RELOCATION NOTE
* RELOCATION NOTE - ADD
* RELOCATION NOTE - VACATED NUMBER
* RELOCATION NOTE - PARTIALLY CHANGED NUMBER
* REVISION NOTE - COMPLETELY
* REVISION NOTE - EXTENSIVELY
* SCOPE NOTE
* SEGMENTATION NOTE
* SEMIHIERARCHICAL NOTE
* STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS NOTE - MODIFIED
* STANDARD SUBDIVISIONS NOTE - REOCCURRING IRREGULARITIES
* TABLE NOTE - BUILD
* TABLE NOTE - GENERIC
* TABLE NOTE - OPTION
* TABLE NOTE - PREFERENCE
* VARIANT NAME NOTE


I think I got most of the important Dewey notes...  I decided to skip the
definitions for Dewey since many of them are specific to Dewey itself.  But
I did rename the notes from what the Dewey editors use so they could be
classified into groups so they could be compared with other vocabulary note
types and to discover cross vocabulary similarities.  From the list you can
see the diversity of notes in Dewey compared with MARC21-A and MARC21-C.
There are patterns to the Dewey note types.

First, let me *emphatically* say:
  I don't feel that SKOS *should support* all these note types.

That wouldn't be useful since few vocabularies need to or go into such
detail.  However, I do see a group of base note types that could be useful
for thesauri, subject headings, classification, etc. and a mechanism to
extend the base note types for specific purposes.

Looking at the original SKOS proposal it had the following note types
defined in the RDF schema: skos:scopeNote, skos:generalNote,
skos:hierarchyNote, skos:editorNote, and skos:historyNote.  Lets just take
these and see how MARC21-A, MARC21-C and Dewey fit in.  Note, I didn't find
an SKOS definition of what each of these note types means, so what follows
is based upon my *interpretation*.  I think Miles eluded to the fact that
definitions *need* to go along with the SKOS elements, or scope notes for
note types.

SKOS                MARC21-A  MARC21-C  Dewey
------------------  --------  --------  -------------

scopeNote            680       680      SCOPE NOTE
                               683      CLASS HERE NOTE
                               684      CLASS ELSEWHERE NOTE
                                        CLASS ELSEWHERE NOTE - SCATTERED
                                        DEFINITION NOTE [5]
                                        INCLUDING NOTE
                                        OPTION NOTE
                                        PREFERENCE NOTE

generalNote [1]      667 [2]   686 [6]  Probably most everything else goes
here,
                                          with a few exceptions [6]

hierarchyNote [4]                       SEMIHIERARCHICAL NOTE

editorNote           667                EDITOR NOTE
                                        EDITOR NOTE - FLAG

historyNote          678       685      DISCONTINUED NOTE - VACATED NUMBER
                     682                DISCONTINUED NOTE - PARTIALLY
CHANGED NUMBER
                     688                FORMER HEADING NOTE
                                        MOST RECENTLY USED NOTE
                                        NEW SCHEDULE NOTE
                                        RELOCATION NOTE
                                        RELOCATION NOTE - ADD
                                        RELOCATION NOTE - VACATED NUMBER
                                        RELOCATION NOTE - PARTIALLY CHANGED
NUMBER
                                        REVISION NOTE - COMPLETELY
                                        REVISION NOTE - EXTENSIVELY

example              670 [3]   681      
                     675 [3]            
                     681                
                                        


[1] Public or non-public?
[2] Assumption is non-public.
[3] A citation could roughly be considered an example,
    but this doesn't fit well.
[4] What's the scope for this?
[5] A definition could roughly be considered a scope note, 
    but this doesn't fit well.
[6] Assumption is public.


There are some places where the Dewey notes don't fit well.  One area of
concern is the VARIANT NAME NOTES.  In Dewey the preferred term is the class
number.  There are many alternate labels, such as the captions associated
with the class number from the various translations.  Variant names really
aren't alternate labels for the concept, per say, but the also aren't
strictly notes either.  Kind of mixture of the two...  We still aren't sure
how to resolve this issue.  I also lumped a lot of stuff in skos:generalNote
that probably shouldn't belong their.

From these vocabularies I can start to see some patterns.  There are
distinctions between public vs. private notes which roughly could fit
skos:scopeNote vs. skos:editorNote.  However, public notes do not
necessarily have to have a scope relationship to the concept.  So the
definition of skos:scopeNote needs a better definition.  For me a scopeNote
defines what is or is not in code for the concept.  This would include
things like when to use the concept, when not to use the concept, what is
included with the concept, what is not included with the concept, and
optional or restricted information for using the concept.  A public note is
just that, a note for public consumption that doesn't relate to the scope of
the concept.  Probably not the best definition.

There are distinctions between editor vs. private notes but in my mind its
difficult to say where the line is, e.g. when does a private note become a
editorial note?  The skos:editorNote could cover both and if the vocabulary
maintainer needs to make that distinction it could.  Or better yet you could
have skos:editorNote subclass skos:privateNote which subclasses skos:Note.
If someone needs to make a different distinction between an skos:editorNote
and another form of private note they can just subclass skos:privateNote.
So maybe a class hierarchy might look like:

skos:Note

  skos:publicNote
    skos:scopeNote
    skos:historyNote

  skos:privateNote
    skos:editorNote

I noted an issue with skos:generalNote, is it public or private?  I think
that skos:historyNote is a good generic note type to build different types
of history notes upon.

Breaking down the MARC21 note formats, we can see the following:

* public notes
* non-public notes
* scope notes
* history notes
* citation notes
* application notes
* general notes
* examples

Breaking down the Dewey note formats, we can see the following:

* public notes
* non-public notes
* scope notes
* history notes
* citation notes
* application notes
* general notes
* examples
* hierarchy notes (not sure whether definition matches SKOS)
* reference notes
* arrangement notes

If I were to suggest a class hierachy for these three vocabularies, it might
look something like:

skos:definition
  - a definition of the concept, useful for encoding dictionaries,
    jargon, acronym, abbreviations; this is really another form of
    specialized note, should it be a subclass of skos:Note or
    skos:publicNote?

skos:example
  - examples of the usage for the existing concept; this is
    really another form of specialized note, should it be
    a subclass of skos:Note or skos:publicNote?

skos:Note
  - generic class for notes that allows subclassing for 
    specialized note types

  skos:publicNote
    - generic class for public notes that allows subclassing
      for specialized note types

    skos:applicationNote
      - defines instructions for applying tables, subarrangements,
        or additions to construct new concepts based upon the
        existing concept

    skos:arrangementNote
      - defines how to arrange items under the concept

    skos:citationNote
      - defines a citation of a consulted source for defining
        the existing concept

    skos:generalNote
      - defines general information for which a specialized 
        note type has not been defined 

    skos:hierarchyNote
      - [needs a definition]

    skos:historyNote
      - defines information about the history or past use and 
        meaning of the concept

    skos:referenceNote
      - defines other places that the person might wish to
        consider when evaluating the concept for use; these
        places are outside the scope of the BT/NT/RT semantic
        relationships

    skos:scopeNote
      - defines what is or is not in code for the concept and
        would include things like when to use the concept, 
        when not to use the concept, what is included with 
        the concept, what is not included with the concept, 
        and optional or restricted information for using the 
        concept.  

  skos:privateNote
    - generic class for non-public, e.g. private, notes that
      allows subclassing for specialized note types

    skos:editorNote
      - a note for an editor, translator or maintainer
        of the vocabulary


Given the above response, I realize that this was a very long message to
read through, perhaps people who deal with other vocabularies could share
the note types they find in them and some broad note type categories that
could be generalized for SKOS use.  I have provided a start and the dart
board.  Feel free to plunder these ideas and see how other vocabularies fit
within the definitions.


Andy.

Andrew Houghton, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
http://www.oclc.org/about/
http://www.oclc.org/research/staff/houghton.htm

Received on Tuesday, 11 May 2004 19:39:40 UTC