Thesaurus (information retrieval)

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This article is about thesauri in the context of information retrieval. Such a thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary expanded with relations of broader, narrower and related terms, serving subject indexing and vocabulary control. A controlled vocabulary is a collection of sets of words and phrases where one item in each set is marked as a preferred term and the other items, usually synonyms, are marked as non-preferred terms.

## Contents

* 1 Thesaurus entry features
* 2 Example English thesauri
* 3 Example non-English thesauri
* 4 Standards for thesaurus development
* 5 Further reading

## Thesaurus entry features[edit | edit source]

Features of an entry of a thesaurus for information retrieval, where an entry corresponds to a concept, entity or subject:

* The preferred term denoting the concept or entity.
* A set of non-preferred terms denoting the concept or entity.
* A broader term.
* A set of narrower terms.
* A set of related terms.
* Note or scope note, defining the term or restricting its scope.

## Example English thesauri[edit | edit source]

* W:AGROVOC: For food, nutrition, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and the environment; in general, for areas of interest of the FAO. An example entry: lithium.
* W:Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT). For items of art, architecture, and material culture. An example entry: cathedral. The Note field provides a definition or scoping information.
* W:Corpus Corporum
* W:Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA). For cultural works, including architecture and movable works such as paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, textiles, ceramics, furniture, other visual media such as frescoes and architectural sculpture, performance art, archaeological artifacts, and various functional objects that are from the realm of material culture and of the type collected by museums. Is a project of the Getty Research Institute.
* W:European Thesaurus on International Relations and Area Studies: A multilingual, interdisciplinary thesaurus covering International Relations and Area Studies.
* W:EuroVoc: A multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union.
* W:Faceted Application of Subject Terminology
* W:Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names: For names and associated information about places, covering administrative political entities (e.g., cities, nations), physical features (e.g., mountains, rivers), as well as current and historical places.
* W:Health Sciences Descriptors
* W:Library of Congress Subject Headings
* W:Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
* W:National Agricultural Library Thesaurus and Glossary: for terms related to agricultural, biological, physical and social sciences.
* W:Union List of Artist Names
* US Geological Survey Thesaurus. Example entry: vertebrates
* W:WordNet. Thesaurus-like database, although not strictly a controlled vocabulary since no term in a WordNet synset is set as the preferred one. In contrast to thesauri, there is meronymy and holonymy for part-of relationships. WordNet's hypernym and hyponym relations provide the hierarchical aspect of a thesaurus (broader term, narrower terms) and WordNet's definitions act as scope notes. Covers top ontology, including entity.
* W:International Classification of Diseases, which includes ICD-9, ICD-10 and ICD-11. Thesaurus-like database that features taxonomization and classification of diseases and their episodes. Each disease, disease group or episode is named by a preferred name and defined or characterized, which serves as a scope note. The hierarchical aspect of a thesaurus (broader term, narrower terms) is present by diseases and their episodes being placed into a hierarchy. Example entry for ICD-9: Influenza; for ICD-10: Influenza due to identified seasonal influenza virus; for ICD-11: Influenza.
* W:Wikidata: ontology and knowledge graph that de facto provides thesaurus features. One label for an entity/concept is designated as the primary one, acting as the preferred term. Other labels for an entity/concept are non-primary, acting as non-preferred terms. Instead of the relations of broader term and narrower terms, there are relations acting in a similar if more stringent roles including subclass-of, instance-of and part-of. There is no generic relation corresponding to the thesaurus related term relation (generic association) but there is a host of more specific relations (properties) de facto providing this service. The description field can provide the services of a scope note, although part of that role is delegated to properties.

## Example non-English thesauri[edit | edit source]

* W:Nuovo soggettario. Also known as BNCF thesaurus. Italian.
* W:Répertoire de vedettes-matière de l'Université Laval. French.
* W:Schlagwortnormdatei. German.
* W:Integrated Authority File. Gemeinsame Normdatei. GND. German. Example entry: Planet. Features Oberbegriffe (broader terms), Untergeordnet (narrower terms) and Verwandter Begriff (related term). Has top ontology, e.g. Entität. Lacks scope notes.
* W:Polythematic Structured Subject Heading System (Polytematický strukturovaný heslář; PSH). Wikidata:Q7227098. Czech. Example entry: planety. Features nadřazené heslo (broader term) and podřazená hesla (narrower terms). Lacks top ontology, e.g. entity. Lacks scope notes.
* NKCR AUT (Národní knihovna České republiky - AUT). Czech. Example entry: planety (astronomie). Features nadřazený termín (broader term), podřazený termín (narrower term) and asociovaný termín (related term). Lacks top ontology, e.g. entity. Lacks scope notes.

## Standards for thesaurus development[edit | edit source]

Standards for thesaurus development are covered in the section History of the Wikipedia article, Wikipedia: Thesaurus (information retrieval). The latest standard listed is ISO 25964, published in 2011 and 2013.

Further reading:

* Wikipedia: ISO 25964

## Further reading[edit | edit source]

* Wikipedia: Thesaurus (information retrieval)
* Wikipedia: Category:Thesauri
* Chapter 1: Thesauri: Introduction and Recent Development, books.infotoday.com