[OPLINLIST] FW: [ala-ifc] FW: POPLINE - 'abortion' is now a stopword

[Kent Oliver]

Folks, This is an FYI.    Another "interesting" example of some serious issues with government intervention and  the ability of librarians to perform their work effectively.
Kent

Kent Oliver, Executive Director
Stark County District Library
715 Market Ave., N., Canton, OH 44702
W: 330 458 2710 FAX: 330 455 9596
KOliver at starklibrary.org<mailto:KOliver at starklibrary.org>
"[L]ibraries in the United States can contribute to a future that values and protects freedom of speech in a world that celebrates both our similarities and our differences, respects individuals and their beliefs, and holds all persons truly equal and free."-Libraries: An American Value<http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/lib_val.html>

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From: Won, Gloria [mailto:Gloria.Won at ucsfmedctr.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 3:36 PM
To: ala at ala.org
Subject: POPLINE - 'abortion' is now a stopword

To American Library Association:
It has come to our attention that the term ABORT * and its variant forms, ABORTION, ABORT, etc are now regarded as STOPWORDS, rendering them no longer searchable in the publicly-available, government funded POPLINE database.  See details below.  Would you please distribute this information to your membership.
Thank you,
Gail Sorrough, Director of Medical Library Services
& Gloria Won, Librarian
HM Fishbon Memorial Library
UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion
1600 Divisadero St, Rm A116
San Francisco, CA 94115
415 885-7378

===================================================================================================================
To:  Debra L. Dickson
POPLINE Database Manager/Administrator
INFO Project
111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, MD 21202
ddickson at jhuccp.org<mailto:ddickson at jhuccp.org>
Tel: 410-659-6300 / Fax: 410-659-6266
Hi Debbie -
Thank you for your quick response to my e-mail.  I have forwarded your e-mail to researchers with whom I am working; I suspect they will be as puzzled as I about the decision to make "all abortion terms stop words" in the government funded, publically available "POPLINE" database.  Even more troubling is the implications for the average user - eliminating this term essentially blocks access to the reports in the database and ultimately to information about abortion.  "Unwanted w2 pregnancy" is not a synonym for abortion.

My colleague, Gail Sorrough and I are also forwarding this e-mail to several organizations whose members are primarily medical librarians.  We suspect they will also be puzzled by the notion that a perfectly good noun such as "abortion" should for no apparent reason be classified as a "stop word" and equated with "a", "an", "the".

A better explanation is deserved - the explanation should also be posted on the website for all users to know, e.g.,  "The POPLINE database producers have decided to ignore "abortion" as a searchable term because ....... ?

We look forward to a better explanation for why this term has been eliminated; all of the users of POPLINE deserve to know.

Regards,

Gail Sorrough, Director of Medical Library Services and Gloria Won, Librarian
H.M. Fishbon Memorial Library
UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion
1600 Divisadero St, Rm A116
San Francisco, CA  94115
415 885-7378
Gail.sorrough at ucsfmedctr.org<mailto:Gail.sorrough at ucsfmedctr.org>
Gloria.won at ucsfmedctr.org<mailto:Gloria.won at ucsfmedctr.org>


________________________________
From: Dickson, Debbie L. [mailto:ddickson at jhuccp.org]
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 7:26 AM
To: Won, Gloria
Subject: RE: Popline retrieval discrepancy

Hi Gloria,

Yes we did make a change in POPLINE.  We recently made all abortion terms stop words.  As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now.  In addition to the terms you're already using, you could try using 'Fertility Control, Postconception'.  This is the broader term to our 'Abortion' terms and most records have both in the keyword fields.  Also, adding 'unwanted w2 pregnancy' in place of aborti*.  We have a keyword Pregnancy, Unwanted and there are 2517 records with aborti* & unwanted w2 pregnancy

I hope this helps.
Debbie



________________________________
From: Won, Gloria [mailto:Gloria.Won at ucsfmedctr.org]
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 3:51 PM
To: Dickson, Debbie L.
Subject: RE: Popline retrieval discrepancy

Hello Debbie:

I left a message on your voice mail today regarding POPLINE, but didn't explain the problem I'm encountering, so here is an email follow-up.

When I ran this strategy on Jan 18, 2008, POPLINE retrieved 1684 refs; when I re-ran the same strategy today, POPLINE retrieved fewer refs, ie, 1478 refs.  Usually, when a search is re-run at a later date, the total number of references retrieved is more, not less.    Has POPLINE undergone some major change in the past few months that might explain the decreased retrieval?    What can account for this discrepancy?

(strategy removed)

I also tested a second strategy that was developed in Jan 2008 and had similar results, ie, fewer refs retrieved this time than previous.   Puzzling?!?

Appreciate a prompt response --
Thank you, Gloria


Gloria Won, MLIS
H.M. Fishbon Memorial Library
UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion
1600 Divisadero Street, Room A116
San Francisco, CA  94115
415 885-7378
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