Page 168 - DLIS405_INFORMATION_STORAGE_AND_RETRIEVAL

Seema Sharma, Lovely Professional University Unit 14: ERIC and Thesaurofacet

Notes
Unit 14: ERIC and Thesaurofacet

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction

14.1 ERIC (Educational Resources Information Centre) Thesaurus
14.2 Thesaurofacet

14.3 Summary

14.4 Keywords
14.5 Review Questions

14.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Define keyword vs. description searching
• Describe UF and RT
• Explain thesaurofacet.

Introduction

The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors (Thesaurus) is a controlled vocabulary - a carefully selected list of
education-related words and phrases assigned to ERIC records to organize them by subject and make
them easier to retrieve through a search. Searching by Descriptors involves selecting relevant terms
from this controlled vocabulary to locate information on your topic.
The inadequacy of conventional information systems to meet effectively the challenge posed by the
accelerated rate of growth of information in science and technology has given rise to modern high
speed retrieval systems. Proper functioning of these systems depends upon the existence of certain
basic tools. One such tool is the thesaurus.

14.1 ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Thesaurus

The thesaurus terms are used by indexers to describe the contents of publications in a consistent,
comprehensive and concise manner. These terms are listed in the Descriptors field (DE=) of each
record added to the database.

Keyword vs. Descriptor Searching
While you can also search ERIC using keywords of your choosing, you will get more precise search
results if you use Thesaurus terms. That’s because searching by keywords requires matching the

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