User Perceptions of Associative Thesaural Relationships: A Preliminary Study

This study investigates whether potential library users can identify distinctions of associative relationships in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and whether they perceive such relationships as useful. This work tests previous presumptions about user needs and capabilities regarding associative relationships. It lays a foundation for an interconnected network of subject relationships to navigate both library catalogs and the Web. Using sample related term pairs sourced, potential library users on Amazon Mechanical Turk were asked to identify narrower distinctions of established associative relationship types. Results indicate that some associative relationship types, especially near-synonymous/frequently interchangeable terms, are easily identifiable while others, like position in time and space, remain problematic. Despite an inclination against library catalog use, potential library users do perceive associative relationships as useful and suggest a variety of additional associative relationship types. For some users, the type of associative relationship may be less important than relationship closeness or proximity.