Thomas Ivie Spring 2011 SLIS 5200 SWIM-A Concept Briefing

Pre- and Post-Coordination

Abstract
This briefing defines pre and post-coordination, addresses their purpose and use, discusses the process for of them, and discusses their benefits and limitations. Pre- and post-coordination are indexing systems that assign descriptive words, terms, or phrases to intellectual content. Their purpose is to assist the user in finding the materials they desire. Pre- and post-coordination employs a four stage process of content analysis, concept selection, concept translation, and term combination. Pre-coordinate benefits include better precision and recall. Post-coordination benefits include the elimination of the need to learn rules, subject headings, and ordering; users can form their own query based on their information needs; and it empowers the user by allowing them to mix and match terms without worry of order. Pre-coordination limitations include complexity, use of incorrect terms, and out-of context results. Post-coordination limitations include diminished precision, high recall, and information overload. Examples are given to demonstrate how pre- and post-coordination affects user searches by way of subject access, ordering, partial matches, and controlled vocabulary.

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Introduction
This briefing defines pre and post-coordination, addresses their purpose and use, discusses the process for them, and discusses their benefits and limitations. It also provides examples to demonstrate how preand post-coordination affects user searches.

Definition
Pre- and post-coordination are indexing systems that assign descriptive words, terms, or phrases to intellectual content (Jacob, 2004, p. 534; Rowley, 1992, p. 280; Zeng, 2006, p. 53). Pre-coordination of terms occurs before searching takes place and is facilitated by an indexer (Rowley, 1992, p. 280). Postcoordination of terms is facilitated by an indexer but occurs during the search portion of the retrieval process by the searcher (Rowley, 1992, p. 282).

Purpose and implications

Purpose and use of pre- and post-coordination The purpose of pre- and post-coordination is to assist the user in finding the materials they desire. Precoordinate systems originated with paper catalogs and printed indexes (Rowley, 1992; Knight, 2009). Pre-coordination provides search strings and cross references to show semantic relationships through a controlled vocabulary (Knight, 2009). Order of the terms is integral to the process of retrieval and maintains the consistency in treatment of terms (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998). Post-coordinate systems are known for use in computerized searches (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998). Post-coordination was designed to rectify problems associated with pre-coordination, uses natural language or controlled vocabulary terms and is a grouping instead of a system of organization (Jacob, 2004; Knight, 2009). Process for pre- and post-coordination Pre- and post-coordination employs a four stage process. Content analysis involves what the information source is about. Concept selection involves formation of policy that determines how exhaustive the indexing will be. Concept translation involves natural language or controlled vocabulary terms to be in the index. Term combination involves ordering of terms and is dependent on the indexing system (Knight, 2009, pp. 12-13). Benefits and limitations of pre- and post coordination Benefits Pre-coordination provides better precision because it can use different syntaxes from various ideas but using identical terms to produce good results (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998; Jacob, 2004). It is enhanced by intelligent term orderings performed by a cataloger, allows reasonable groupings, and lowers partial matches (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998). Recall is enhanced by the ordering of terms (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998). Post-coordination eliminates the need for users to learn rules, subject headings, and ordering. It is less expensive and faster and includes interactive communication between the searcher and system because the searcher can form their own query based on their specific information need (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998; Jacob, 2004; Knight, 2009). It empowers the user by allowing them to mix and match terms without worry of order and can provide higher recall (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998; Jacob, 2004; Knight, 2009). Limitations Pre-coordination puts a strain on communication between the user and system because it is complicated by available subject headings, their rules, and ordering that predetermine the make-up of the sets of retrievable data (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998; Jacob, 2004; Knight, 2009). Precision is potentially limited

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without a thesaurus in hand, causing the searcher to guess terms (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998). Improper intelligent term orderings can cause users to browse irrelevant hits because of out-of-context results (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998). It is expensive and very slow to index in controlled vocabulary (Knight, 2009). Lack of order among search terms diminishes precision in post-coordination (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998). It results in a high recall because multiple search terms are independent. This leads to more out-of-context results, information overload, and causing the user to not notice any more than the first few hits (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998; Knight, 2009).

Examples
Example #1: Subject access: pre- and post-coordination Pre-coordination: Construction Industry Italy Only allows fixed order of each subject to find relevant information that results in higher precision and lower recall. Post-coordination: Italy Industry Construction Allows a query to have terms in any order, results in lower precision and higher recall, and can lead to out-of-context results and information overload. Example #2: Ordering to avoid partial matches in pre-coordination A book on photography studios and dark rooms has an LCSH of Photography studios and dark rooms. If the book were cataloged under Photography Studios dark rooms, then the searcher who is interested in photography dark rooms and looked under Photography Studios would find a partial match and have to browse many more items than if they searched a correct LCSH in correct citation order. Correct citation order increases precision, lowers recall, and reduces information overload. Example #3: Post-coordination search and improper partial matches A post-coordinated search for a photography book using the terms dark rooms, photography results in low precision and large recall of items that have an improper partial match. It would produce a list of books that includes dark rooms in any context (probably a lot of fiction) and any books about photography, many of them will not match what the searcher wants and leads to information overload. Example #4: Controlled Vocabulary to increase precision in post-coordination A post-coordinated search for Cars results in low precision and high recall. The use of a controlled vocabulary that includes a descriptor like Volkswagen increases the precision and lowers the recall because it limits Cars to Volkswagens. The descriptor of diesel would further limit Volkswagens to those with diesel engines, increasing precision and lowering the recall further.

Conclusion
Pre- and post-coordination are indexing systems that assign descriptive words, terms, or phrases to intellectual content (Jacob, 2004; Rowley, 1992; Zeng, 2006). The purpose of both indexing systems is to assist the user in finding the materials they desire. Pre- and post-coordination employ a four stage process (Knight, 2009) providing post-process systems that have inherent benefits and limitations, shared and independent (Bodoff & Kambil, 1998; Jacob, 2004; Knight, 2009). The examples demonstrate how pre- and post-coordination affects user searches by way of subject access, ordering, partial matches, and controlled vocabulary. As Thomas Mann (2003, p. 54) pointed out, Neither I nor anyone else is arguing for precoordination rather than postcoordination. We need both.

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References
Bodoff, D. and Kambil, A. (1998). Partial coordination. I. The best of pre-coordination and postcoordination. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(14), 1254-1269. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/%28SICI%2910974571%281998%2949:14%3C1254::AID-ASI4%3E3.0.CO;2-O/pdf Jacob, E. (2004). Classification and categorization: A difference that makes a difference. Library Trends, 52(3), 515-540. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.125.255&rep=rep1&type=pdf Knight, J. (2009). Pre- and post-coordinate indexing: Strengths and weaknesses. Catalog & Index, no.158, p. 12-16. Mann, T. (2003). Why LC subject headings are more important than ever. American Libraries, 34(9), 5254. Retrieved from http://connect.ala.org/files/15532/mannarticle_pdf_49df66dad1.pdf Rowley, J. (1992). Organizing knowledge, 2
nd

ed. England: Gower Publishing.

Zeng, M. (2006). Sharing and use of subject authority data. International Cataloging & Bibliographic Control, 35(3), 52-54.