Examine and compare the entries for “Atoms”, “Minerals”, “Angles” and “Cars” on SCOT and SCIS Subject Headings Online to see examples of the differences between these two controlled vocabulary approaches.
Atoms: SCISSHL has 'Used for' and 'related terms', as well as broader terms and narrower terms, whereas ScOT only has the latter two.
Minerals: SCISSHL says 'USE mineralogy', ScOT has the term Minerals (Mineralogy). Both have BT, NT and RTs, though SCISSHL has more of each.
Angles: The SCISSHL search puts 'angles' right at the top of the results, whereas the SCOT search appears to show everything with the word angles in it. SCISSHL only has the one broader term for this one, whereas ScOT has HEAPS of narrower terms and some related terms as well.
Cars: ScOT uses the word 'cars' as an allowed term, whereas SCISSHL says to use 'motor cars'. SCISSHL has an indexing note (IN) and a specific example note (SEN) for motor cars, and a number of broader and narrower terms. SCOT has a few of these terms, but no other descriptions. The term TNR has come up for each search result term in ScOT, I wonder what it means... Can't seem to find the answer to that question anywhere...
Very sleepy now - need to decide whether to have a nap or go shopping for tea... Or both....
Showing posts with label thesaurus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thesaurus. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Thesauri
Activity
Investigate a thesaurus. You can find many online. An excellent starting point is ANZSI - Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers' (ANZSI) Indexing Resources.
Perhaps my favourite online thesaurus, and one you might like to investigate, is The Cook’s Thesaurus complete with illustrations.
I looked at this cooking thesaurus. It's quite good actually, I recommend it if you ever have a question about ingredients. I looked up eggplants for example (though I called it an aubergine just to test whether the thesaurus would refer me to the preferred term), and learned some useful information about male and female eggplants!
* Does the thesaurus you have investigated have a clear hierarchical structure? Or are the terms grouped in non-hierarchical categories?
This thesaurus has a hierarchical structure, with categories within categories.
* Does the thesaurus have scope notes, or definitions, of terms?
It has definitions of terms, or advice on the use of them, and has pictures of many terms as well.
* If you search for a term that is not a preferred term, are you referred to the correct term?
Yes, you are. I searched for 'aubergine' and was referred to 'eggplant', searched for 'capsicum' and was referred to 'bell pepper' (so guessing it's an American site?).
Investigate a thesaurus. You can find many online. An excellent starting point is ANZSI - Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers' (ANZSI) Indexing Resources.
Perhaps my favourite online thesaurus, and one you might like to investigate, is The Cook’s Thesaurus complete with illustrations.
I looked at this cooking thesaurus. It's quite good actually, I recommend it if you ever have a question about ingredients. I looked up eggplants for example (though I called it an aubergine just to test whether the thesaurus would refer me to the preferred term), and learned some useful information about male and female eggplants!
* Does the thesaurus you have investigated have a clear hierarchical structure? Or are the terms grouped in non-hierarchical categories?
This thesaurus has a hierarchical structure, with categories within categories.
* Does the thesaurus have scope notes, or definitions, of terms?
It has definitions of terms, or advice on the use of them, and has pictures of many terms as well.
* If you search for a term that is not a preferred term, are you referred to the correct term?
Yes, you are. I searched for 'aubergine' and was referred to 'eggplant', searched for 'capsicum' and was referred to 'bell pepper' (so guessing it's an American site?).
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Controlled vocabularies
Still wrapping my mind around the idea of controlled vocabularies (I am possibly trying to make it more complicated than it needs to be), and when/how they are used, but I am pretty confident I can complete the activity below...
Activity
Locate the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) online. (Hint: either use a web search engine, or locate it from Michael Middleton’s Controlled vocabularies website.)
Assign terms from this thesaurus to:
1. a book about the architecture of castles
2. a journal article about sculptures of indigenous Australian animals
Using this Thesaurus, it was interesting to note the heirarchy display (by clicking on the symbol to the left of each result). From suggestions made in the forum, I am gathering that we need to be as specific as possible rather than including overarching terms. Because of this, there may only be one term... I think this is ok!
1.
- castles (fortifications)
2.
- constructions (sculpture)
- assemblages (sculpture)
- sculpture (visual work)
- statues
Ok that will do. This could be quite time consuming if you let it be. Also I have stared at the word sculpture for too long, and now it looks strange...
Activity
Locate the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) online. (Hint: either use a web search engine, or locate it from Michael Middleton’s Controlled vocabularies website.)
Assign terms from this thesaurus to:
1. a book about the architecture of castles
2. a journal article about sculptures of indigenous Australian animals
Using this Thesaurus, it was interesting to note the heirarchy display (by clicking on the symbol to the left of each result). From suggestions made in the forum, I am gathering that we need to be as specific as possible rather than including overarching terms. Because of this, there may only be one term... I think this is ok!
1.
- castles (fortifications)
2.
- constructions (sculpture)
- assemblages (sculpture)
- sculpture (visual work)
- statues
Ok that will do. This could be quite time consuming if you let it be. Also I have stared at the word sculpture for too long, and now it looks strange...
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