Section 9.3. Technical Lingo


9.3. Technical Lingo

If you're working with controlled vocabularies and thesauri, it's useful to know the core terminology used by experts in the field to communicate definitions and relationships. This specialized technical language can provide efficiency and specificity when communicating among experts. Just don't expect your users to recognize these terms. In the web environment, you can't require that users take a library science class before they use your information system.


Preferred Term (PT)

Also known as the accepted term, acceptable value, subject heading, or descriptor. All relationships are defined with respect to the Preferred Term.


Variant Term (VT)

Also known as entry terms or non-preferred terms, Variant Terms have been defined as equivalent to or loosely synonymous with the Preferred Term.


Broader Term (BT)

The Broader Term is the parent of the Preferred Term. It's one level higher in the hierarchy.


Narrower Term (NT)

A Narrower Term is a child of the Preferred Term. It's one level lower in the hierarchy.


Related Term (RT)

The Related Term is connected to the Preferred Term through the associative relationship. The relationship is often articulated through use of See Also. For example, Tylenol See Also Headache.


Use (U)

Traditional thesauri often employ the following syntax as a tool for indexers and users: Variant Term Use Preferred Term. For example, Tilenol Use Tylenol. Many people are more familiar with See, as in Tilenol See Tylenol.


Used For (UF)

This indicates the reciprocal relationship of Preferred Term UF Variant Term(s). It's used to show the full list of variants on the Preferred Term's record. For example, Tylenol UF Tilenol.


Scope Note (SN)

The Scope Note is essentially a specific type of definition of the Preferred Term, used to deliberately restrict the meaning of that term in order to rule out ambiguity as much as possible.

As we've seen, the preferred term is the center of its own semantic universe. Of course, a preferred term in one display is likely to be a broader, narrower, related, or even variant term in another display (see Figure 9-13).

Figure 9-13. Semantic relationships in a wine thesaurus


Depending upon your experience with the classification of wines, you may already be questioning the selection of preferred terms and semantic relationships in this example. Should sparkling wine really be the preferred term? If so, why? Because it's a more popular term? Because it's the technically correct term? And aren't there better related terms than weddings and mimosas? Why were those chosen? The truth is that there aren't any "right" answers to these questions, and there's no "right" way to design a thesaurus. There will always be a strong element of professional judgment informed by research. We'll come back to these questions and provide some guidelines for constructing "good" answers, but first let's check out a real thesaurus on the Web.




Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
ISBN: 0596527349
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 194

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