Page 180 - DLIS405_INFORMATION_STORAGE_AND_RETRIEVAL

Unit 14: ERIC and Thesaurofacet

Literary Warrant Notes
SN The inclusion of a vocabulary term in a controlled vocabulary based on its appearance in one or
more content items. For example, a medical text may use the term “oncology.” Based on literary
warrant, that term would be included in the controlled vocabulary even though the general public
uses the term “cancer.”
RT User Warrant
Vocabulary Term
Narrower Term
SN The subordinate word in an inclusion or hierarchical relationship. A member or part. Abbreviated
in displays at “NT.” For example, “running shoe” is a narrower term than “shoe.” Narrower terms
are sometimes referred to as “child” terms.The inversion of narrower term is broader term.
UF Child Term
RT Broader Term
Hierarchical Relationship
Related Term

Natural Language

SN Language as it is spoken; language in everyday use.
RT Controlled Vocabulary
User Warrant

Non-preferred Term

USE Variant Term

Parent Term
USE Broader Term

Polyhierarchy
SN A hierarchy in which some vocabulary terms have more than one broader term. For example,
“Rome” might be a narrower term under both “European capitals” and “Italian cities” in a geographic
vocabulary.
RT Hierarchy
Taxonomy

Precision
SN A ratio that measures the success of a search. Precision is defined mathematically as the number
of relevant items returned by a search divided by the total number of items returned by the search.
Thus, a search that returned only relevant items would have a precision of 1.0.
Precision usually has an inverse relationship to recall. That is, increasing the precision of a search
usually decreases the recall. Precision can be increased by increasing the specificity of vocabulary
terms. For more information, see:
IAWiki: “Recall vs. Precision”

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