ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

A customized database on Scandinavian government

By Martha L. Brogan Assistant to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs University of Minnesota

Robert B. Kvavik Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs University of Minnesota

Customized bibliographic databases and educational innovation.

The development of the Scandinavian political studies database is a joint project of Martha Brogan, a professional librarian and former bibliographer for Western European Studies, and Robert B. Kvavik, a political scientist with a specialty in Scandinavian government and politics.

Originally and ultimately intended to facilitate the compilation of a published bibliography, the project—while still in its developmental phase— has already served a beneficial use to support research and instruction at the University of Minnesota. During Winter Quarter 1988, in a graduate seminar on Scandinavian government and politics, the database was used effectively to develop specialized readings lists on such topics as Finnish foreign policy, Norwegian and Icelandic interest groups, and coalition governments in Sweden. The customized lists were discussed with the students, and research themes were identified which could be investigated using materials held by the University Libraries.

The database also produced a master reading list for an undergraduate class on Scandinavian politics. The electronic bibliography saved us, our students—and presumably some of our library staff—precious time in identifying and locating relevant materials. Rather, the faculty member’s energy focused on helping students specify research problems, the student’s on synthesizing materials and formulating positions on agreed-upon problems in the field, and perhaps the librarian’s, on judicious selection of new materials to add to the collections.¹

Of course, the strength of the bibliography, no matter what its format—electronic or in-print—is based on the selection of materials it identifies and must be grounded in a thorough knowledge of both the subject under consideration and the multiplicity of sources where the subject is discussed. While new technologies may simplify some of the tedious and mundane elements of producing a bibliography, they do nothing to guarantee a quality product. The technology permits us to gather, store, and manipulate data in new ways—and even occasionally provides “management information” about what we have compiled—but the content of the bibliography, upon which the ultimate value of the tool rests, remains the domain of the subject specialist. This particular project has been especially successful because of the combined skills in bibliographic “sleuthing” and subject expertise which we could bring to it. Although it is entirely possible for one individual, whether teaching faculty or professional subject bibliographer, to possess the requisite skills, we have found the collaborative approach to offer more checks and balances to the project, and, we hope, to result in stronger final tool.

When we began to work on this bibliography in January 1986, an annotated bibliography of contemporary Scandinavian political science had not appeared since Sven Groennings’ Scandinavia in Social Science Literature: An English-Language Bibliography (1970). Although Scandinavian Political Studies compiled cumulative bibliographies for the periods 1960-1975 and 1976-1979, they focused on publications of Nordic political scientists, represented extensively the Scandinavian literature, and were not annotated. Further, this effort ceased with the second cumulation.

The more recent work by Kjell Eliassen and Mo- gens Pedersen, Scandinavian Political Institutions and Political Behavior, 1970-1984: An Annotated Bibliography (1985), is limited to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and focuses more narrowly on political institutions and elites, political participation, the decision-making process, and the public sector. Despite its subtitle, it employs a classified subject approach rather than annotations and it lacks an index. Other less comprehensive efforts have also been attempted, mainly as extended course reading lists, such as Eric Einhorn and John Logue’s “A Selective Bibliography of Scandinavian Politics and Policy” (1984), which is limited to monographic literature, and Robert B. Kvavik’s “Scandinavian Government and Politics: A Bibliography of Materials in English” (1984).

With this intention to fill the nigh twenty-year void, at a time when the English-language social scientific literature on Scandinavia is flourishing, we set out to develop a search strategy for Scandinavia in political science. Our efforts were greatly facilitated by the historic strength of the University Libraries’ collections in Scandinavian Studies. We began with our local collections and established from the outset a principle of reviewing each item for its potential inclusion, calling interlibrary loan services to the rescue only in isolated instances where the materials were not readily available at the University of Minnesota.

Aided by PRO-CITE (in its early version called PBS or Personal Bibliographic Software), citations were entered manually from such sources as: Suecana Extranea, Index Nordicus, Scandinavian Political Studies, Scandinavia in English, Books on Sweden in English, Scandinavian Political Institutions and Political Behavior 1970-1984, Documentation on Sweden, Nordic Democracy, Comparative Public Policy: The Politics of Social Choice in Europe and America, and “Scandinavian Government and Politics: A Bibliography of Materials in English” (see bibliography). With few exceptions, no more than 20 percent of the items from these bibliographies was selected for inclusion. Older and dated bibliographies were reviewed primarily for identifying classic studies or works in fields no longer in vogue. In addition, articles published from 1970 to the present were selectively extracted from such journals as Cooperation and Conflict, Acta Sociologica, Scandinavian Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, and Western European Politics.

Electronic downloading was done concomitantly using Biblio-link. We ran searches on external databases such as the Online Union Catalog of OCLC, the RLIN files of the Research Libraries Group, and the bibliographic databases offered by Lockheed Information Systems (Dialog). In the latter case, we searched U.S. Political Science Documents (USPSD), Historical Abstracts, Social Sci- search, and Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). Subject headings for politics, e.g., economic policy, political parties, were employed for each of the Scandinavian countries and with Scandinavia and Northern Europe; no documents published prior to 1970 or in languages other than English were requested by the search protocol. The entire database was then screened for duplicates and irrelevant materials. We also deleted articles which were felt to be out of date or had been slightly modified and published anew in less common and hard-to-find journals.

While the working corpus was being established, we began to design the codebook to be used for indexing the citations. The codebook provides access to the database by five broad categories: format (e.g., book, article, serial), country, focus of study (e.g., whether it was a case study or comparative analysis), type of study (e.g., statistics, bibliography, government publication), and, most importantly, subject.

The creation of the topical index in particular proved invaluable in refining the subject scope of the bibliography and in improving our search strategy. The bibliography covers the following subject areas: government structure; political thought, behavior, and organization; political parties and institutions; public administration and policy; institutional and intergovernmental relations; and assessment of the social democratic state. Thus, we can search singly or in combination with any of the variables included in the codebook. We can look for articles on labor unions in Sweden, books on ethnic minorities in Finland, comparative studies on party systems, articles on parliaments after 1980, statistical materials on Norway in the University of Minnesota libraries, or for articles written by a particular author, e.g., Stein Rokkan.

As of August 15, 1988, the bibliography consisted of 1,739 records. One of the useful features of the software is its ability to count the number of entries we have coded for each index category. This permits us to monitor our search strategy to determine whether our results reasonably represent the extent of the literature in the field. Currently, the database is about equally divided between journal articles and books or chapters thereof. Thirty percent of the entries, or 523 citations, are about Sweden; Norway represents about 18 percent of the database; Denmark and Finland each comprise about 13 percent.

As to the subject areas, we have 86 citations on constitutions and constitutionalism; 139 on elections, campaigns, and voting behavior, and 117 on political economy. A closer review of this computerized “management information” leads us to conclude that we need to dig deeper for materials on the role of the ombudsman and heads of state. In the case of studies on the ombudsman, clearly we have failed to identify the right sources or our search protocol is faulty. In the case of the monarchy or head of state, this finding represents an absence of English-language material on the subject and perhaps suggests an area for some additional research and writing. We must also reconsider our category on housing policy and environment, and more carefully select in the area of political economy and elections, campaigns, and voting behavior.

Bibliographic software

PRO-CITE is a database software package, developed and marketed by Personal Bibliographic Software, Inc., of Ann Arbor, Michigan, designed to create and maintain properly formatted bibliographies. The major programs include the database software, PRO-CITE, and its companion Biblio- Links, which permit the downloading and integrating of records from external databases such as the Online Union Catalog of OCLC, the RLIN files of the Research Libraries Group, or the bibliographic databases offered by Lockheed Information Systems (Dialog) and BRS. It is run on an IBM PC or compatible machine using DOS 2.0 or greater. It is not practical to use PRO-CITE without a hard disk and less than 640K of RAM.

The database is created by entering records (elements of a bibliographic citation) into one of twenty different data entry work forms, each work form corresponding to a particular type of material: book, journal, newspaper, dissertation, letter, conference proceedings, map, audiovisual material, art work, data file, etc. Data is entered into appropriate fields in the data entry form, e.g., author, title, publisher, date, abstract. No punctuation marks separating elements of a citation are entered manually. A separate punctuation file automatically fills in periods and commas according to a preselected style sheet. The default style sheet is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian style sheets are available alternatives; or you can define your own style sheet. The software permits the user to change style sheets without having to retype the entire bibliography, which is very useful if a publisher demands a style sheet which differs from your preferred format. Up to 32,500 records can be included in a single database.² Foreign- language characters can be entered into the database.³

PRO-CITE has word processing and database capabilities which permit the user to create an accurate, properly formatted, and thoroughly professional bibliography. The editor is easy to use and provides typical word processing features such as block moves and copying. Bibliographies created by PRO-CITE can be printed (even on 3 x 5 cards) in diverse formats (with headers, with any or all data fields, e.g., with or without abstracts, pagination, etc.) or sent to a disk using ASCII characters. Files sent to disk can be joined with manuscript files created by Wordperfect and most common word processing programs.

Records may be sorted on any field (publisher, author, title, date of publication, call number). Text searches can be made in any field. Duplicate records can be identified and deleted. This feature is especially useful when downloading records from several external databases which invariably overlap or duplicate one another. Using communication software such as Crosstalk, the various Biblio-links, written especially for use with PRO- CITE, download citations from external databases and enter the data into the appropriate fields in a PRO-CITE database. An indexing feature supports the creation of subsets or mini-databases, e.g., to create a bibliography of materials on political parties from a larger bibliography on Scandinavia.

We are pleased with the system but would caution potential bibliographers of the following caveats.

First, the system is expensive for those just starting out. The software costs approximately $1,000 and the hardware requirements run on the top-end of the PC market.

Second, although successive releases of the software are increasingly flexible, PRO-CITE is still limited strictly to the production of bibliographies. It is not applicable as a general file or database management package.

Third, despite the promise of downloading, the system is still extremely time-consuming to use in the initial phases of development. Each Biblio- link, whether to OCLC, RLIN, or to specific Dialog databases, has to be especially configured for the search so that the appropriate fields are transferred correctly. Virtually every downloaded record, even if successfully transferred, requires additional editing, thus reducing the potential gain in cost efficiency. For example, author’s names may appear in varying forms in different files, and they have to be edited to a standard form; call numbers for the local collection have to be inserted manually; and foreign diacritics do not transfer correctly.

Fourth, the integrity of downloaded records is wholly contingent on the reliability of the original input. A prudent bibliographer is wise to verify the authenticity of each record.

Fifth, PRO-CITE’s editing capabilities, while improving, do not compare in sophistication to those of familiar word processing packages. Editing is limited to a line-by-line basis and cannot be performed on a screen or compiled text basis. Helpful procedures, such as global “search and replace” commands, are not available.

Sixth, as explained earlier, no matter how “expert” the technology, it cannot replace knowledge of the subject and familiarity with the sources, whether those of the local collection, the international book trade, commercial database vendors, or specialized research institutes abroad.

In effect, we have developed a prototype with all of the problems and promise such projects involve. The changes that are occurring in library automation and the rapid developments in the area of artificial intelligence and expert systems, however, are bringing this type of academic support service closer to reality for faculty and students. From the perspectives of this Scandinavian Studies faculty member and librarian, it is an exciting and gratifying prospect. Developments that promote research and writing in the undergraduate classroom are fundamental to quality education. Lastly, information management systems will create new linkages and divisions of labor between professional librarians and the research community and a clearer recognition of the centrality of the library to the academic enterprise.

Sources

Allardt, Erik. Nordic Democracy: Ideas, Issues, and Institutions in Politics, Economy, Education, Social and Cultural Affairs of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Copenhagen: Det Danske Selskab, 1981.

“Cumulative Bibliography of the Research Literature, 1960-1975,” Scandinavian Political Studies 12 (1977): 185-288.

Documentation on Sweden.Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 1968, 1975-1982.

Einhorn, Eric S., and John Logue. “A Selective Bibliography of Scandinavian Politics and Policy.” [Amherst]: International Area Studies Programs, University of Massachusetts, 1984.

Eliassen, Kjell A., and Mogens N. Pedersen. Skandinaviske politiske institutioner og politisk ad- ferd 1970-1984: En kommenteret bibliografi / Scandinavian Political Institutions and Political Behavior 1970-1984: An Annotated Bibliography. Odense: Odense University Press, 1985.

Groennings, Sven. Scandinavia in Social Science Literature: An English-language bibliography. Bloomington: [for] the International Affairs Center [by] Indiana University Press, [1970].

Heidenheimer, Arnold J., et al. Comparative Public Policy: The Politics of Social Choice in Europe and America. 2nd ed., New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.

Kuhnle, Stein, and Lars Svåsand, comp. “Nordic Political Science 1976-1979: A Bibliography,” Scandinavian Political Studies 4 (1981), supplement.

Kvamme, Janet, comp. Index Nordicus; A Cumulative Index to English-Language Periodicals on Scandinavian Studies. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1980.

Kvavik, Robert B. “Scandinavian Government and Politics: A Bibliography of Materials in English.” [Minneapolis]: University of Minnesota, [1984].

Larson-Fleming, Susan, comp. Books on Sweden in English: In-print as of January 1, 1983; Translations, Non-fiction, Swedish-Americana. Edited by Lena Daun and Marna Feldt, New York: Swedish Information Service, [1983].

Suecana Extranea: Books on Sweden and Swedish Literature in Foreign Languages.Stockholm: Royal Library, 1963-1976.

Tiblin, Mariann, ed. Scandinavia in English: A Bibliography of Books, Articles, and Book Reviews, 1973-1974. Compiled by Kaaren Grimstad, et al. [s.I.]: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study; Lawrence, Kan.: [Available from] Allen Press, 1975. Published as Scandinavian Studies, vol. 47, no. 4, supplement.

Tiblin, Mariann, and Susan Larson-Fleming, eds. Scandinavia in English: An Annual Bibliography of Humanities and Social Sciences. Minneapolis: Center for Northwest European Language and Area Studies, 1980.

Notes

1. The original version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies, April 28-30, 1988, at Eugene, Oregon. The project is supported by a small grant from the Educational Development Programs office at the University of Minnesota.
2. For practical reasons, a very large file (e.g., 2,000 citations or more), is cumbersome to work with even with a RAM disk and extended memory. As databases can be combined and merged, it is recommended that you work with smaller files until you are ready to finish the project.
3. By downloading a file into a high quality word processing program and using a program such as Turbofonts which permits printing of virtually any character (as well as presenting it on the screen), desktop publishing of professional bibliographies can be generated readily. Characters which are not readily available include: ø, ø, Ð, ð, Þ, and þ . Note that Russian-Slavic Cyrillic, Hebrew, Ug- aritic, Egyptian, Arabic characters are all supported.