Compatibility (of
IR-languages)
Compatibility in general means the capability of
performing in harmonious combination. In classification, indexing and
IR-languages it means the possibility for combining different systems.
Maniez (1997): "Compatibility is the paradise lost of
information scientists, the dream of a universal communication between
information languages. Paradoxically the information languages increase the
difficulties of cooperation between the different information databases. This
noxious side-effect has become flagrant for the latest decade since the shared
cataloguing and the telecharging facilities have increased the exchanges. After
defining the notion of information compatibility, the author shows that it meets
the same care of semantic coherence as the information languages themselves.
Then, relying on the lessons of linguistics and automatic translating, he
describes two types of viable solutions: the harmonization of several
information languages (an uneasy and costly processing); and the automatic
harmonization of the indexing formulas through prefabricated concordance tables,
an easier solution which can however be hampered by structural discrepancies.
Last he sketches a critical view of the concept of switching language."
Literature:
Dahlberg, I. (1981). Towards establishment of compability between indexing
languages. International Classification, 8(2), 86-91.
Dahlberg, I. (1983). Conceptual Compatibility of ordering systems. International Classification, 10(1), 5-8.
Frost, C. O. & Dede, B. A. (1988). Subject heading
compatibility between LCSH and catalog files of a large research library - A
suggested model for analysis. Information Technology and Libraries, 7(3),
288-299.
Maniez, J. (1997). Database merging and the compatibility of indexing languages.
Knowledge Organization, 24(4), 213-224.
Seetharama, S. (1985). Compatibility among medical
classification systems - A case study in the classification of cardiovascular
diseases. International Classification, 12(2), 80-86.
See also:
Interoperability;
Switching languages;
Standardization.
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 22-07-2006