# /research/publications/archive/releases/1998-07-31.htm

originally: http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/archive/releases/1998-07-31.htm

# OCLC awards 1998 research grants

DUBLIN, Ohio, July 31, 1998--The OCLC Office of Research has awarded three Library and Information Science Research Grants to university researchers for 1998.

Corinne Jorgensen, assistant professor, University at Buffalo-State University of New York, received a grant for "The Applicability of Selected Classification Systems to Image Attributes Named by Naïve Users." Dr. Jorgensen's project will analyze current indexing and classification systems in relation to recent research results concerning image attributes described by naïve participants. The concrete and pragmatic goal is to provide coherently organized and easily understood information about existing image indexing and classification systems to those who are grappling with the problem of organizing large collections of images for access.

Elaine Toms, assistant professor, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, received a grant for "Genre as Interface Metaphor: Exploiting Form and Function in Digital Environments." Dr. Toms' study suggests that the form and function of a document can be defined by its genre and that each class of genre has a parsimonious set of attributes that uniquely identifies that class. Furthermore, a genre can serve as an organizing metaphor to facilitate a user's recognition of and interaction with a digital document. Using two experiments, she will access those attributes in print form, map the discriminating cues to digital documents using XML, and assess them in digital form.

Marcia Lei Zeng, associate professor, Kent State University, Ohio, received a grant for "Object Description on the Internet: A Study of Current Standards and Formats--Testing Existing Metadata Standards and Proposed Metadata Cores in a Digitized Historical Fashion Collection." Dr. Zeng's research will study the applicability of current metadata standards and other proposed metadata formats in object description on the Internet, using a digitized historical fashion collection as the research sample. The study will contribute to the understanding of describing non-two-dimensional and non-document-like objects on the Internet and contribute to the discussion of potential applications of current metadata standards and the elimination of abundant and overlapping efforts in metadata development.

"We are pleased to support these projects," said Terry Noreault, director, OCLC Research and Special Projects. "University-based research adds an important dimension to our research agenda, and these projects promise findings of broad interest to the library and information science community."

The OCLC Library and Information Science Research Grant program awards grants of up to $10,000 to foster quality research by faculty in schools of library and information science. Projects are generally completed within one year, and findings are published in the Annual Review of OCLC Research and in the public domain. Application materials for 1999 will be available in September on the OCLC Web site < http://www.oclc.org/ >. For more information, contact the Office of Research by telephone at +1-614-764-6487 or by E-mail at < diane_morris@oclc.org >.