Staff publications - Cranfield Library

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Proposals for an investigation into the efficiency of various retrieval systems
(1956) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
Open Access
ASLIB Cranfield Research Project: report on the first stage of an investigation into the comparative efficiency of indexing systems
(College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, 1960-09) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
It was in 1953 that the train of events started which brought about my participation in the investigation which is the subject of this report. R. G. Thorne, of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, and I had been closely associated with the development of the Nationaal Luchtvaart- laboratorium Card Catalogue of Aerodynamic Data (Ref.1). This was an index designed for the retrieval of information in answer to very specific requests, and was far removed from the systems used in conventional library indexing. In that the average time taken to index each document was 1.5 hours, it was comparatively expensive, although the cost was shared out on a subscription basis amongst a number of organisations. Clearly, however, such an index could only be used for a relatively limited range of documents that were of particular significance, and Thorne and I were prepared to accept the possibility that in certain circumstances an organisation might be economically justified in maintaining two different types of indexes covering an overlapping range of documents. The Universal Decimal Classification was widely used in England and, in spite of many criticisms, was on the whole meeting the requirements of its users for a general indexing system. We were looking for another system which would fulfil the same function as the NLL scheme, but which might be less expensive and therefore more attractive economically for a single organisation to operate.
Open Access
ASLIB Cranfield project - report on the first stage of a test on the Library catalogue of The English Electric Co. Ltd., Whetstone
(Cranfield Institute of Technology, 1961-06) Warburton, B.; Cleverdon, Cyril W.; Aitchison, Jean
At the request of the Director of the Aslib Cranfield Project, the Library of Engiish Electric Company at Whetstone agreed to allow the Project Staff to carry out a test on their catalogue. This was required in connection with the work of the project, more particularly in relation to the view that it was possible to carry out tests of this nature on existing indexes. From the project viewpoint, it was an experiment; as far as English Electric Company were concerned, it was hoped that the test might produce some information of value concerning their Facet catalogue.
Open Access
Application for grant to the National Science Foundation, Washington [for] an investigation into the performance characteristics of descriptor languages
(Cranfield Institute of Technology, 1961-11) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
In 1956 the National Science Foundation made a grant to Aslib for the first stage of an investigation into the camparative efficiency of four indexing systems, This stage of the work continued until March, 1959, and a further grant was made to cover the test programme. It is from the results of this work that the present proposals have evolved.
Open Access
Aslib Cranfield research project: report on the testing and analysis of an investigation into the comparative efficiency of indexing systems
(1962-10) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
This volume continues the account of the Aslib-Cranfield project as given in the "Final Report of the First Stage of an Investigation into the Comparative Efficiency of Indexing Systems". The major portion of the two years spent on this present stage has been involved with the analysis of the considerable amount of data which was obtained from the main test programme. A difficulty in this work was in deciding on the type of analysis which would be most likely to yield valuable information. In order to keep this volume within reasonable limits, it has been necessary to select from the analysis that was done, and even so in many cases only brief examples are given. The major emphasis has been placed on the reasons for failure to retrieve source documents, for this is considered to give some of the most interesting results of the project and has not, to our knowledge, been previously attempted. Of possible equal importance, but certainly more difficult to evaluate, is the reason for the retrieval of non-relevant references. This analysis has not been attempted within the present work, but will be one of the matters to be investigated in the continuation of the project.
Open Access
Aslib Cranfield research project - A report on a test of the index of metallurgical literature of Western Reserve University
(1963-10) Aitchison, Jean; Cleverdon, Cyril W.
For many years the index to metallurgical literature at the Center for Documentation at Western Reserve University has been recognised as one of the most advanced indexing systems in use. It has been developed over many years with the assistance of grants from the American Society of Metals, and was put on an operational basis in 1960, when it was made available to members of the Society by subscription. At Cranfield, a by-product of the test on the efficiency of indexing systems had been the development of a method for testing existing systems. The opportunity of trying-out this method on the W.R.U. index was greatly appreciated by the Cranfield group; that it was an experiment in the use of the technique, equally as much as a test of the W.R.U. index, was accepted by both groups from the start. However, as the work developed, it became clear that the test was also becoming a research investigation in its own right, and that it was making significant additions to our knowledge of the operation of indexing systems. The following report covers all three stages of the work.
Open Access
Application for grant to the National Science Foundation, Washington [for] an investigation into the methodology of evaluation techniques based on a test of the MEDLARS system of the National Library of Medicine
(1965-06) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
A grant of $55,832 is requested by Aslib from the National Science Foundation over a period of two and a half years, for the purpose of the design and direction of an investigation into the methodology of evaluation of information retrieval systems, based on an evaluation test of the MEDLARS system of the National Library of Medicine. The work involved in carrying out the test will be the financial responsibility of the Library, and this application for grant is therefore limited to those activities which will be done in England. Some general problems of evaluation methodology are considered in the paper.
Open Access
Aslib Cranfield research project - Factors determining the performance of indexing systems; Volume 1, Design; Part 2, Appendices
(1966) Cleverdon, Cyril W.; Mills, Jack; Keen, Michael
The appendices which follow provide complete informationconcerning the collection of documents and the set of questions used in the investigation, and are included with the intention that it should be possible for anyone - if they should wish to do so - to repeat the test.
Open Access
Aslib Cranfield research project - Factors determining the performance of indexing systems; Volume 1, Design; Part 1, Text
(1966) Cleverdon, Cyril W.; Mills, Jack; Keen, Michael
Open Access
Aslib Cranfield research project - Factors determining the performance of indexing systems; Volume 2, Test results
(1966) Cleverdon, Cyril W.; Keen, Michael
The test results are presented for a number of different index languages using various devices which affect recall or precision. Within the environment of this test, it is shown that the best performance was obtained with the group of eight index languages which used single terms. The group of fifteen index languages which were based on concepts gave the worst performance, while a group of six index languages based on the Thesaurus of Engineering Terms of the Engineers Joint Council were intermediary. Of the single term index languages, the only method of improving performance was to group synonyms and word forms, and any broader groupings of terms depressed performance. The use of precision devices such as links gave no advantage as compared to the basic device of simple coordination. All results have to be considered within the context of the experimental environment, but they can be said to substantiate or clarify many of the findings of Cranfield I. It is conclusively shown that an inverse relationship exists between recall and precision, whatever the variable may be that is being changed. The two factors which appear most likely to affect performance are the level of exhaustivity of indexing and the level of specificity of the terms in the index language. For any given operational situation, the optimum levels cannot be categorically stated in advance, but can only be determined by an evaluation of the system, the main consideration probably being the subject field. It would be unusual if the characteristics of the subject field used for this test were such as to make it unique, so the high performance obtained with the single terms in natural language can be considered to be of some importance in regard to the use of natural language text as input to mechanised systems.
Open Access
The critical appraisal of information retrieval systems
(1968-09) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
The paper reviews one set of methods which can be used in the critical appraisal of various stages of an information retrieval system.
Open Access
Interim report on an investigation on mechanised information retrieval service in a specialised subject area
(Cranfield Institute of Technology, 1970) Cleverdon, Cyril W.; Harding, P.
The report covers the work undertaken in establishing and operating for a period of six months an S.D.I. service in the field of precision engineering. The performance and costs of the system are given and the problems which would be involved in a commercial operation are considered. The view is taken that it would be difficult for a system of this type to be economically viable in the short term.
Open Access
The effect of variations in relevance assessments in comparative experimental tests of index languages
(Cranfield University; Aslib, 1970-10) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
It was desired to check whether the unexpected test results obtained in Cranfield II had been influenced by the relevance decisions. Three new sets of relevance decisions were therefore obtained, and the Cranfield II results were re-calculated for nineteen index languages on the basis of the new relevance judgements. A rank order of the index languages was found; in no case did the correlation co-efficient of any of the three new rank orders fall below 0.921 when compared with the original Cranfield II results. The findings of a similar type of test by Lesk and Salton are considered, and the conclusion is reached that the results of Cranfield II had showed that the superiority of the single term index languages were not significantly affected by relevance judgements.
Open Access
A comparative evaluation of searching by controlled language and natural language in experimental N.A.S.A. data base
(European Space Agency, 1977-07) Cleverdon, Cyril W.
An evaluation test was made of an experimental data-base prepared by the Space Documentation Service of the European Space Agency, consisting of some 44,000 items from NASA STAR for 1973 and 1974. With this data-base it was possible to search on natural language terms in the titles and abstracts, in addition to the normal searches on controlled language index terms. The on-line searches were carried out at four centres, each centre being responsible for ten questions, with two searches in the alternative search modes being made by different people for each question. Up to twenty-five documents retrieved in the two searches for each question were sent to the originator of the question for relevance assessment. The results are presented in a number of different ways, but in every case the natural language searches showed a significantly higher recall ratio than the controlled language, with little difference in the precision ratios. It is suggested that the main reason for the superiority of natural language searching is the greater exhaustivity of the abstracts as compared to the indexing.
Open Access
BIODOC - the transition from research project to fully fledged service
(UKSG, 1998-07) Bevan, Simon J.; Evans, Janet; Harrington, John; Turner, Emma
This is the third in a series of papers describing BIODOC, a service now in its fourth year that addresses the access versus holdings debate in a University library. The main aims of the study were to evaluate the cost effectiveness of a wholly access based information service, to analyse user perception/receptivity and the impact of such a service, as well as to improve upon the existing service to the staff and students involved. As part of the project the Library also wished to compare document supplier performance and disseminate all findings among the academic and research communities.
Open Access
Management of printed and electronic serials.
(Ashgate Publishing, 1999) Woodward, Hazel
Serial literature constitutes a major part of all academic libraries' collections, and typically accounts for more than half of their expenditure on library materials - often a great deal more than half. For many academic and research staff, the serials to which the library subscribes are the most important and useful elements of its stock; for librarians they represent material which is expensive to acquire and difficult to manage. Serial literature, whether in printed or electronic format, thus merits separate attention in a study of academic library collection management. In many ways managing a serials collection differs little from managing a bank, a soccer team, or any other organization. The fundamentals of a shared mission, commonly defined objectives, open two-way communication and clearly perceived tasks and responsibilities drive any organization to its level of appropriate success. Essential to the successful management of serials collections in libraries is an understanding of the nature of the collection being managed, and of the managerial forces at play over the collection. The type of library in which the collection resides will call forth varying managerial responses but while styles and methods of organizing staff may differ among various academic libraries, the principles of management remain the same whether in London, Los Angeles or Lagos.
Open Access
The UK's National Electronic Site Licencing Initiative.
(Haworth Press, 2001) Woodward, Hazel
In 1998 the UK created the National Electronic Site Licensing Initiative (NESLI) to increase and improve access to electronic journals and to negotiate license agreements on behalf of academic libraries. The use of a model license agreement and the success of site licensing is discussed. Highlights from an interim evaluation by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) are noted and key issues and questions arising from the evaluation are identified
Open Access
Licencing e-journals: UK style
(Haworth, 2002) Woodward, Hazel
This presentation will describe the way in which academic libraries in the United Kingdom (UK) are licencing and accessing electronic journals (e-journals). This process is being facilitated by the higher and further (HE and FE) funding councils through the Joint Information Services Committee (JISC). The presentation will begin by setting the context for national e-journal licencing and explain the wider version of the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER). It will than go on to describe the achievemants of the National Electronic Site Licence (NESLI) initiative and examine some ot the future developments currently under consideration.
Open Access
The MAGiC Final Report
(British Library Cooperation and Partnership Programme, 2002-12) Needham, Paul A. S.; Sidwell, Katy; Bevan, Simon J.; Harrington, John
Open Access
Replacing print with e-journals: can it be done - a case study
(United Kingdom Serials Group, 2003-09-30T13:49:57Z) Bevan, Simon J.; Nieminen, Satu; Hunn, Ruth A.; Sweet, Michelle
This article describes the introduction and management of e-journals at Cranfield University and considers the training and education issues related to this implementation