# /research/staff/houghton.xml

originally: http://www.oclc.org/research/staff/houghton.htm

        Andrew Houghton
        Consulting Software Engineer
        <P>I have worked at OCLC since 1985 and in the Office of Research since 1996. Prior to transferring to the Office of Research I worked in OCLC's Development Division as part of the team that designed, implemented and supported the Prism Terminal Interface, known today as the WorldCat Cataloging Service. One of last projects I was assigned to before transferring to the Office of Research was the creation of a prototype for browsing the Library of Congress Classification using a Web browser.</P>
    <P>Since transferring to the Office of Research I have contributed to the publication of the second edition of "Subject Headings for Children" and the first edition of "People, Places &amp; Things". The Subject Headings for Children publication provides a list of over 20,000 popular Library of Congress Subject Headings from the Annotated Card Program and pairs them with corresponding Abridged Edition 13 Dewey Decimal Classification<SPAN class=superscript>®</SPAN> numbers. The People, Places &amp; Things publication provides a list of over 50,000 popular Library of Congress Subject Headings and pairs them with corresponding Edition 21 Dewey Decimal Classification<SPAN class=superscript>®</SPAN> numbers. Both of these projects explored semi-automated techniques for mapping terminology. </P>
    <P>Besides the publications, mentioned above, I have been involved with other projects that have used the Dewey Decimal Classification<SPAN class=superscript>®</SPAN> and/or the Library of Congress Subject Headings. One project involved the development of a prototype for viewing the Abridged Edition 13 Dewey Decimal Classification<SPAN class=superscript>®</SPAN> from a CDROM using a Web browser and was demonstrated at the <A href="http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/mwreports/alamidwintermeeting.htm" target=_blank>2000 Midwinter ALA in San Antonio, Texas</A>. Many of the techniques for manipulating and converting the classification data were reused when I was involved with the WebDewey in CORC project, known today as <A href="http://www.oclc.org/dewey/versions/webdewey/" target=_blank>WebDewey in Connexion</A><SPAN class=superscript>®</SPAN>. During this time I created an XML representation of the Dewey Decimal Classification<SPAN class=superscript>®</SPAN> for use by licensees and translators.</P>
    <P>Additionally, I was fortunate to participate in a meeting at the Library of Congress that finalized the <A href="http://www.loc.gov/standards/marcxml/" target=_blank>MARC-XML standard</A>.</P>
    <P>My research interests include classification schemes (enumerated, faceted and hierarchical), synonym rings, subject heading systems, thesauri, Web Services and <A href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss" target=_self>RSS</A>. From a technological aspect, most of my projects are accomplished with <A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt" target=_blank>XSLT</A>, <A href="http://www.perl.org/" target=_blank>Perl</A> and Microsoft tools such as <A href="http://office.microsoft.com/" target=_blank>Office</A>, <A href="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/" target=_blank>SQL Server</A>, <A href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/" target=_blank>ASP.NET</A> and <A href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/" target=_blank>VB.NET</A>. But I have been known, on occasion, to program in other languages such as <A href="http://www.forth.org/" target=_blank>Forth</A> and <A href="http://java.sun.com/" target=_blank>Java</A>. </P>
    <P>For further information about my accomplishments:</P>
    <UL>
    <LI><A href="http://www.oclc.org/search/search.pl">Search OCLC Web sites</A></LI></UL>
        <LI>"IE: Browser Bar Details." 2005. Paper available on the OCLC Web site at <A href="http://staff.oclc.org/~houghtoa/repository/articles/IEBrowserBarDetails/index.htm">http://staff.oclc.org/~houghtoa/repository/articles/IEBrowserBarDetails/index.htm</A>.
    <LI>"XSLT: Personal Name Sorting Conundrum." 2005. Paper available on the OCLC Web site at <A href="http://staff.oclc.org/~houghtoa/repository/articles/XsltPersonalNameSortingConundrum/index.htm">http://staff.oclc.org/~houghtoa/repository/articles/XsltPersonalNameSortingConundrum/index.htm</A>.
    <LI>"Metadata Switch: Thinking About Some Metadata Management and Knowledge Organization Issues in the Changing Research and Learning Landscape." With Lorcan Dempsey, Eric R. Childress, Carol Jean Godby, Thomas B. Hickey, Diane Vizine-Goetz, and Jeff Young. In <EM>EScholarship: A LITA Guide</EM>, ed. Debra Shapiro (2005). February 2005 preprint available at <A href="../publications/archive/2004/dempsey-mslitaguide.pdf" target=_blank>http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/archive/2004/dempsey-mslitaguide.pdf</A> <SPAN class=small>(PDF:824K/25pp.)</SPAN></LI>
        <LI><A href="../projects/termservices/default.htm">Terminology Services</A></LI>
        <LI><A href="../memberscouncil/2004-10/vizine-goetz.ppt">Services in the Microsoft Office 2003 Research task pane</A> <SPAN class=small>(PowerPoint:300K/7slides)</SPAN>
    <LI><A href="../memberscouncil/2004-10/default.htm">OCLC Members Council Digital Libraries Research Interest Group meeting</A>, October 25, 2004, Dublin, Ohio (USA)</LI>

        <A href="mailto:houghton@oclc.org (Andrew Houghton, OCLC Office of Research)" target=_self>houghton@oclc.org</A>
        +1-614-764-6003
        +1-614-718-7075