Page 207 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Information Analysis and Repackaging

Notes the same items will be retrieved whichever term is used. A friendly computer will explain what it is
doing, so that the user is not puzzled by being given items with terms different from those asked
for.

Figure 11.4: Preferred term substitution

We list all
Frocks under the
term Dresses ; your
Have we search will be done
any frocks in using that term.
the collection?

Computer
consults
the thesaurus

Computer uses
We have the following: thesaurus results
342: Green dress with spots to search the
234: Blue sleeveless frock catalogue
887: Evening dress

USE and USE FOR relationships are thus used between synonyms or pairs of terms which are so
nearly the same that they do not need to be distinguished in the context of a particular collection.
Other examples might be:
Cloaks USE Capes
Capes USE FOR Cloaks

Nuclear energy USE Nuclear power
Nuclear power USE FOR Nuclear energy

Baby carriages USE Perambulators
Perambulators USE FOR Baby carriages
Perambulators USE FOR Prams
Prams USE Perambulators
If we name objects, we want to be as specific as possible. If we have worked hard to discern subtle
distinctions in nature, type or style, we certainly want to record these. The point is that the thesaurus
is not the place to do this. Detailed description of an object is the job of the catalogue record; the job
of the thesaurus, and the index which is built by allocating thesaurus terms to objects, is to provide
useful access points by which that record can be retrieved.
USE and USE FOR relationships can also be used to group similar items together, because too much
specificity is as bad as too little. If we have a small clothing collection, containing ten jackets, it is
more useful to give them all the index term jackets than to create many specific categories. Anyone
searching our catalogue will then be able to search on the single term jackets and see a list of the ten
items, each with a description of exactly what kind of jacket it is, as follows:

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