Setting up CALM in Oxfordshire R O, we've reached the point of putting the
subject index into the authority file. This is, of course, a useful time to
check that it still hangs together, and while doing so a thought occurred.
To put it slightly pretentiously, while written on cards our subject index
has always worked in two dimensions, but suddenly we have the chance to
change it to three dimensions. The index is a set of terms, arranged
alphabetically, with cross-references between them, telling searchers to
"see also" other related terms - in other words, to move sideways into a
related area. In the electronic arena we can make hierarchies of terms, so
that for example a head term might be "Music", under which come
"Composition", "Performance", "Instruments", etc, under the last of which
come "Violin", "Piano", and so forth. The account book of a set of piano
manufacturers goes under "Piano", which then picks up all the terms to the
top of the strand: "Instruments", "Music" - so that whatever level a
searcher goes for, everything of relevance will turn up. And so that if they
can't find a term they're searching, all they need do is go in further up
the strand and fine down through the subgroups.
No rocket science there - but has anyone ever actually done it in a county
record office context? To proceed this way will involve defining all the
head terms (Generics, we're calling them at present), working out the
Sub-Generics, deciding what Specifics come under them, and so on. Perhaps
"Music" isn't a Generic; perhaps that's "Arts" and "Music" is just the Sub.
We've no wish to reinvent the wheel. Does anyone have a functioning subject
index which works that way, or has anyone tried it and found it simply
doesn't work?
Carl Boardman
Oxfordshire Record Office
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