Relevance Auras: Macro Patterns and Micro Scatter
Terrance A. Brooks · Advances in Classification Research Online · 1999
Empirical analysis of assessments can illuminate how different groups of readers perceive the relationship between bibliographic records and index terms. This experiment harvested assessments from two groups: engineering students (here after engineers) and library school students (librarians). These groups assessed the relationships between bibliographic records and index terms for three literatures: engineering, psychology and education. Assessment included the indexer-selected term (the topically relevant term) as well as broader, narrower and related terms. Figures 1 - 8 show these terms arranged as twodimensional term domains. Positive assessments plotted across the twodimensional term domains revealed regular patterns, here called relevance auras. A aura is a penumbra ofpositive relevance, emanating from a bibliographic records across a term domain ofbroader, narrower and related index terms. This experiment attempted to compare the auras produced by engineers and librarians at both a macro and micro level of aggregation.