Thesaurus guide

European Commission Directorate-General For The Information Society And Media

Description

Analytical directory of selected vocabularies for information retrieval 1992
Information - Documentation

Sujets

• Directory
• Document retrieval
• Thesaurus

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-THE-INFORMATION-SOCIETY-AND-MEDIA
• Nombre de lectures: 15
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

•COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
THESAURUS GUIDE
Analytical directory of selected vocabularies for information retrieval
1992
Directorate-General XIII
Information Technologies and Industries, and Telecommunications m 5
Commission of the European Communities
THESAURUS GUIDE
Analytical directory of selected vocabularies
for information retrieval, 1992
Second edition
Prepared by
EUROBrokerS
PARL EUROP. Biblioth.
U.C./lÏQu£
("Ί. Published by the
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
Directorate-General XIII
Information Technologies and Industries, and Telecommunications
L-2920 Luxembourg
LEGAL NOTICE
Neither the Commission of the European Communities nor any person acting
on behalf of then is responsible for the use which might be made of
the following information
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1993
ISBN 92-826-4956-3
© ECSC-EEC-EAEC, Brussels · Luxembourg, 1993
Printed in Belgium Guide index
Description Paêe
English introduction 1
Germann 7
French introduction 15
Table of the most frequent symbols 22
Table of subject fields3
Description of thesauri:
A. General
B. Information area 79
C. Mathematics and physico-technical sciences 107
D. Physico-chemical technology 161
E. Astronomy and geosciences 205
F. Agriculture and nutrition 253
G. Biomedical sciences 33
H. Regional and environmental sciences 37
J. Social sciences 44
K. Culture and arts 62
Index of responsible organizations 66
Subject index:
English-German-French 687
German-English-French 803
French-German-English 919 PREFACE
In 1985 the Commission of the European Communities edited the first issue of the "Thesaurus
Guide", a compilation of about 600 thesaurus with their main characteristics selected in the
fields where databases are consulted.
Updates were issued in 1988, 1989 and 1991 including the modifications of the thesaurus as
they were given by the authorities issuing the work and the names and characteristics of
thesaurus not included in the original edition of the Guide and the preceding updates.
As after seven years and three updatings nearly 50% of the contents was altered it was
estimated that a new edition including all modifications and new thesaurus would be useful,
so work started in 1991 to prepare a new revised edition of the Guide.
The new edition keeps the structures of the first one, and if it was possible, the access
numbers were not changed. If a modification of the access number could not be avoided the
fact is clearly mentioned in the field "Miscellaneous" of the corresponding thesaurus.
STRUCTURE OF THE GUIDE
The Thesaurus Guide comprises the following sections:
thesaurus descriptions
index of organizations
subject indexes.
THESAURUS DESCRIPTIONS
Selection of the catalogued references
The Thesaurus Guide contains individual descriptions of "current thesaurus" available in at
least one of the official languages of the European Community. "Current " means that the user
data was available proving that the thesaurus is used, and it is concerning a field of some
importance interesting a group of users.
(There is one exception to the language rule: a thesaurus in Catalan which is not accepted as
an official language of the Community but is the official language of Catalonia, an important
part of Spain).
All the thesaurus listed with the detailed informations about their features in the original 1985
issue of the Guide are listed in the new edition, of course with the updated features when they
were available. However some originators replied during the updating inquests that their
thesaurus is obsolete and no more used and asked for it's deletion from the new issue of the
Guide. It was decided to keep them in the last configuration available but to mention that the
originators asked for it's deletion.
Some thesaurus were listed in the original issue with an access number beginning by 901 after
the letter designing the subject field. Generally the informations available were scarce and
when no supplementary information was obtained during the updates it was decided to delete
them, with the exception of some rare thesaurus which seemed containing useful information
and which kept the access number beginning by 901.
English Introduction ARRANGEMENT OF THE THESAURUS DESCRIPTIONS
Thesaurus related by subject are grouped under a subject field heading, whereby similar
subject headings are grouped under a main heading. This resulted in having 10 main groups
and a total of 51 subgroups. Within the subgroups the thesaurus are arranged according to
subject similarity.
The numbering used to identify a thesaurus is alphanumeric. The main groups are indicated by
the ten letters Α-K. This is followed by a three-figure number, beginning with 101. The
interval between the subgroups in each main group is 50, e.g. A101, A151, A201 etc. thus
allowing for each subgroup to be extended. The annex containing the thesauri with interesting
fields but incomplete for direct informations are numbered beginning by 901 (C901, F902,
etc.)
Each thesaurus is described by a maximum of 16 divisions which can be further subdivided.
The explanations below supply the informations needed for understanding the contents of the
divisions.
AN = ACCESS NUMBER
Is the alphanumeric identification number, established according the above rules, (A101,
D156, etc.).
TI = TITLE AND PUBLICATION DETAILS
Shows the usual data. The title, subtitle, number of volumes, title of volumes, page number of
each volume, place and date of publication, catalogue numbers.
RO = RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATION
Name (organization, department, etc.) and address. Telephone, telefax, telex numbers, name
and position of contact persons.
AU = AUTHOR
Name and function, if available; organization and his/hers address, if he doesn't belongs to the
organization responsable for the edition.
LC = LANGUAGE CODE
Gives the corresponding ISO-code identification of the thesaurus language or "mu" in case of
a multilingual thesaurus. The code may be useful in the on-line research
LA = LANGUAGE
Language(s) of the thesaurus in question and when appropriate, the following indications:
with descriptor equivalences in (other languages)
also available in (other languages)
translation into planned
references to multilingual indexes, etc.
A thesaurus is also considered as multilingual when, for example, only the decriptors or
certain indexes are given in another language.
English Introduction AV = AVAILABILITY
The following distinctions are made:
standard forms: printed, microfilms, microfiche and machine readable
special: computer printout, typewritten, etc.
The names of the source organization, publishing firm, library, etc. are given whenever this
information was obtained.
Lending or inspection at : means that in some cases the thesaurus may be freely inspected
or borrowed.
FC = FIELDS COVERED
The fields covered are given mostly in English (a general rule for multilingual thesaurus) or in
the original language. A distinction is made between the following:
scope (broad term(s) for the field covered by the thesaurus)
- main areas
marginal fields
TE = TERMS
The following informations are given:
number of terms, total r of descriptors
number of non-descriptors r of modifiers
in some cases, "terms" and "geographical terms" are given separately
The following criteria are applied to descriptors:
according the number:
mainly in singular y in plural
in singular and plural
type of terms:
- if only nouns are accepted, this is indicated as: uniterms only
-f parts of speech other than nouns are used; this is indicated as: other parts of speech
composite terms: mostly adjective-noun combination
- phrases: combination of noun and other grammatical term; or: phrases (additive terms)
= series of terms where syntax is replaced by punctuation (e.g. day-nursery)
abbreviations accepted (e.g. Unesco, DIN, etc.)
inverted word order: i.e. social learning, learning (social); frequently, medium
frequency, rarely)
- clarification of ambiguity, like: homonym control, scope notes, definitions, scope
notes (also definitions) = incorporation of the definitions in the scope notes, source
references
- indexing frequency data = how often a descriptor was used in indexing
- chronological data (entry and deletion) = reference to the entry or deletion of a
descriptor
- proper names: unrelated or concatenated by relation = indicates wether names listed
are unrelated or wether they are included in the relation network of other terms, i.e.
equivalence, hierarchical or associative relation.
English Introduction DP = DISPLAY
Below is a list of frequently occurring thesaurus display modes, there is an enormous
diversity:
alphabetical display: of words, word-blocks incorporating non-descriptors broader or
narrower terms, etc.
- classified survey: a broad surve