Measuring Typographical Errors in Online Catalogs of Academic Libraries Using Ballard’s List: A Case Study from Egypt

• Published in: Cataloging & classification quarterly 2023, Vol.61 (7-8), p.848-870
• Main Author: Zakaria, Mahmoud Sherif
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Information retrieval; Library catalogs
• ISSN: 0163-9374; 1544-4554
• DOI: 10.1080/01639374.2023.2282579

Typographical errors in bibliographic records of online library catalogs are a common troublesome phenomenon, spread all over the world. They can affect the retrieval and identification of items in information retrieval systems and thus prevent users from finding the documents they need. The present study was conducted to measure typographical errors in the online catalog of the Egyptian Universities Libraries Consortium (EULC). The investigation depended on Terry Ballard’s typographical error terms list. The EULC catalog was searched to identify matched erroneous records. The study found that the total number of erroneous records reached 1686, whereas the mean error rate for each record is 11.24, which is very high. About 396 erroneous records (23.49%) have been retrieved from Section C of Ballard’s list (Moderate Probability). The typographical errors found within the abstracts of the study’s sample records represented 35.82%. Omissions were the first common type of errors with 54.51%, followed by transpositions at 17.08%. Regarding the analysis of parts of speech, the study found that 63.46% of errors occur in noun terms. The results of the study indicated that typographical errors still pose a serious challenge for information retrieval systems, especially for library systems in the Arab environment. The study proposes some solutions for Egyptian university libraries in order to avoid typographic mistakes in the future.