In fact, the best thesaurus would probably be one that combined UNESCO's hierarchical structure with LCSH's level of detail. There is, after all, little point in using an external thesaurus if you have to invent all your own terms. I freely admit that I favour LCSH (and not just because I work for Christine!), but I feel that it badly needs some sort of structured approach and consistency, which it is currently lacking. And, of course, it needs to get rid of those Americanisms and to become less American-centred (frequently it includes very obscure American terms, but excludes very common non-American ones) for it to be fully acceptable to a non-American user base (this is not a criticism of LCSH, since it was designed for an American library, but it does reduce its usefulness in an international context - if you don't know that Americans call train drivers 'engineers', for instance, then you might be stuck when looking for info on them). On the other hand, it is distinctly preferable to UNESCO, which is so general as to be useless in an archive context as it stands.
James King
Assistant Archivist
Modern Records Centre
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL
Tel: +44 (0) 24 7652 4493
Fax: +44 (0) 24 7652 4211
[log in to unmask]
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/
>>> Christine Woodland <[log in to unmask]> 04/23/02 02:30pm >>>
Can I suggest that colleagues look at Library of Congress Subject Headings? I rejected UNESCO because I would have to 'invent' all my own terms, which would lead to all the problems Carl foresees.
LCSH isn't a thesaurus, a bit like topsy, it just grew, based on the 'literary warrant' of the LC holdings and what other people have put in to it. None the less, it's been going for over 100 years and has had lots of $$$$ spent on it, improving it. One big drawback from the UK point of view is the imposition of American spelling (in my context, labor, not labour) but I think it's worth putting up with that in exchange for the monitoring work that goes on. I've been amazed at the detailed level of entries available to me, all in a controlled vocabulary so that researchers don't have to check in three different places. Moreover LC is prepared to accept new entries, so if what you want isn't there, you can ask for it to go in.
In brief, something that works already exists, and it is prepared to change to accommodate demand, and someone else is paying for it!
Mrs Christine Woodland
Archivist, Modern Records Centre
University Library
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL
tel. (024) 7652 4219
email [log in to unmask]
http://modernrecords.warwick.ac.uk
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