Page 122 - DLIS405_INFORMATION_STORAGE_AND_RETRIEVAL

Unit 12: Vocabulary Control

Flat list Notes
A simple flat list of terms
Glossary
An alphabetical list of terms with some explanation
Subject headings list
See subject heading. A systematic list of subject headings like the ones used for library catalogues.
A subject header provides one of the access points to information.
Taxonomy
In a wide sense almost any kind of well defined list of terms
In one narrow sense, a mono-hierarchical classification of terms, i.e., a child term inherits in principle
the properties of the parent term. E.g. controlled vocabularies are a kind of vocabularies, or XHTML
is a kind of XML application which is a kind of formalism for defining a formal grammar. This is the
equivalent of a kind of typology.
In another narrow sense: “controlled vocabulary in which concepts are represented by preferred
terms, formally organized so that paradigmatic relationships between the concepts are made explicit,
and the preferred terms are accompanied by lead-in entries for synonyms or quasi-synonyms”
(Willpower Information, retrieved 15:08, 27 February 2009 (UTC)).

One also could define a taxonomy with non-hierarchical relationships, but we
would rather call these “thesauri”.

12.4 Trends and Development

Controlled vocabularies, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings, are an essential component
of bibliography, the study and classification of books. They were initially developed in library and
information science. In the 1950s, government agencies began to develop controlled vocabularies for
the burgeoning journal literature in specialized fields; an example is the Medical Subject Headings
(MeSH) developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Subsequently, for-profit firms (called
Abstracting and indexing services) emerged to index the fast-growing literature in every field of
knowledge.
In the 1960s, an online bibliographic database industry developed based on dialup X.25 networking.
These services were seldom made available to the public because they were difficult to use; specialist
librarians called search intermediaries handled the searching job.

In the 1980s, the first full text databases appeared; these databases contain the
full text of the index articles as well as the bibliographic information.
Online bibliographic databases have migrated to the Internet and are now publicly available;
however, most are proprietary and can be expensive to use. Students enrolled in colleges and
universities may be able to access some of these services without charge; some of these services may
be accessible without charge at a public library.
In large organizations, controlled vocabularies may be introduced to improve technical
communication. The use of controlled vocabulary ensures that everyone is using the same word to
mean the same thing. This consistency of terms is one of the most important concepts in technical

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