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The UNESCO Thesaurus

The UNESCO Thesaurus. Meeting for Managers of UNESCO Documentation Networks Meron Ewketu UNESCO Library June 8 2005. Definition and function of a thesaurus. What is it?

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The UNESCO Thesaurus

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  1. The UNESCO Thesaurus Meeting for Managers of UNESCO Documentation Networks Meron Ewketu UNESCO Library June 8 2005

  2. Definition and function of a thesaurus What is it? A hierarchically structured and controlled list of termsused for indexing and retrieving information in UNESCO’S fields of competence. The UNESCO Thesaurus is used by the UNESCO library to catalog its holdings and in collective cataloging projects with field offices, by outside organizations such as the UK Records Office, and in several integrated library management systems. Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  3. Definition and function of a thesaurus (2) Why do we need it? • Language is rich and varied and in constant evolution • So many terms to denote the same concept • drugs vs. medicines, indigenous populations vs. natives, Gypsies vs. Roma, Myanmar vs. Burma • Need to use a controlled vocabulary in order to avoid loss of information arising from the ambiguity of natural language: The UNESCO Thesaurus Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  4. Characteristics • Multidisciplinary: It covers the major fields of knowledge that constitute the scope of UNESCO. It also includes the names of countries and groupings of countries. It contains 7,000 terms in English, 8,600 terms in French and 6,800 in Spanish • Multilingual: Available in English, French and Spanish…and very soon in Russian • Structured according to the ISO standards 2788 and 5964 Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  5. Historical background • The 1st edition of the UNESCO thesaurus was released in 1977 • The 2nd updated, revised and restructured edition was released in 1995 • The online version on web Isis was released in 2000 in English, followed by the French and Spanish version in 2003 and 2004 respectively Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  6. Thesaurus structure • Terms • Term relationships • Equivalence relationship (USE/UF) • Hierarchical relationship (BT/NT) • Associative relationship (RT/RT) • And Scope notes (SN) Some descriptors are accompanied by a SN to explain their meaning or delimit their intended use Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  7. Equivalence relationships (synonyms/ near-synonyms): Use / Used for (UF) Non preferred terms serve as entry points, connecting the terms that users have in mind, e.g. Green tourism with the preferred term, or descriptor applied by the indexer, i.e. Ecotourism Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  8. Hierarchical relationships: Broader term (BT) / Narrower term (NT) Helps users to better define, expand or focus their search by selecting more specific or generic descriptors Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  9. Associative relationships (non-hierarchical): Related terms (RT) • Invites the user to also consider other terms which are closely related to what he is looking for. Users interested in the keyword rights of the child might also be interested in child labour, etc. Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  10. Scope notes (SN) The SN specifies what the descriptor covers and excludes other possible meanings Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  11. The main purpose of the thesaurus is • Helping indexers choose the appropriate keywords when describing subject content of documents • Helping users identify the most appropriate keywords with which to search and retrieve pertinent information from the online catalogue Thus allowing indexers and users to "speak the same language" and bridging the gap between documents and users. Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  12. The indexer will extract the concepts contained in the document and translate these into descriptors from the UNESCO thesaurus The concept of “scientific diasporas” can thus be rendered with the descriptors “brain drain” and “scientists”… Indexing Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  13. Then the searcher refering to the same thesaurus selects appropriate keywords and formulates his query in the online catalogue Searching the online catalogue Unesbib/unesdoc Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  14. Advantages of using the thesaurus • Consistency in indexing • Different information providers, or indexers use the same terms to describe the same concept • Cross language information retrieval in searching • Allows users to input query in one language, language in which one is conversant, and retrieve documents written in another language • Regularly updated • Follows closely the evolution of the terminology in international development organizations and in particular, in UNESCO’s field of competence Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  15. Thesaurus: further developments • Translation of the thesaurus into Russian (in progress) • New search possibility: searching the UNESCO online catalogue via the thesaurus (in progress) • Integration of the thesaurus in the UNESCO web content management system (Symplify) Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  16. Access to the UNESCO Thesaurus • Offline • Print edition: UNESCO Thesaurus, 1995 (now out of print) • CD-ROM: UNESCO Thesaurus, 2004 (published every year) • Online • http://databases.unesco.org/thesaurus/ Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

  17. Questions? Comments? Suggestions… • Meron Ewketu m.ewketu@unesco.org • Patrick Huby Technical contact p.huby@unesco.org Clearing House Workshop, 8-10 June 2005

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