Finding information at the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Overcoming the barriers of scope, concept, and language mismatch
Carol A. Hert | University of North Carolina, Syracuse Unversity, USA
The overall question this article addresses is, “How can information providers facilitate access to and understanding of their information by the general public?” The context of this investigation is the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). We identify three kinds of barriers to finding and using statistical information: user understanding of data scope and availability, user understanding of statistical concepts, and a variety of conceptual and linguistic mismatches. We explore these barriers within three components of the BLS-user environment: communities of users, the scope of BLS information, and the relationship between the concepts and language of BLS and users. The resulting difficulties in information access and use are not unique to the BLS; they can occur any time that non-experts interact with an information-rich web site. The LABSTAT Crosswalk (LSC) is proposed as a solution to these problems, and we discuss its construction and some suggestions for its use. The paper concludes by discussing related problems and solutions, and points out the need for integrated help tools for end users.
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Haas, Stephanie W.
2003.
Improving the search environment: Informed decision making in the search for statistical information.
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 54:8
► pp. 782 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Haas, Stephanie W., Maria Cristina Pattuelli & Ron T. Brown
2003.
Understanding statistical concepts and terms in context: The GovStat ontology and the statistical interactive glossary.
Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 40:1
► pp. 193 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Tse, Tony & Dagobert Soergel
2003.
Procedures for mapping vocabularies from non‐professional discourse a case study: “Consumer medical vocabulary”.
Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 40:1
► pp. 174 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.