ANOTHER WORD FOR EMPENNAGE...
The Museum and the MDA has launched its aircraft thesaurus as an addition to Spectrum-Terminology (previously WordHoard) - The guide to terminology resources relevant to museums.
The guide includes links to a selection of on-line thesauri, classification systems and other authority files, many of which can be accessed free.
The Museum has rich and diverse collections, most notably, the largest collection of aircraft in any single museum in the UK. However, the art, archive, photographic and other collections are also extensive meaning that the terminology to describe the collections is potentially vast.
The aircraft term list is one part of a much larger hierarchical thesaurus used by the Museum to provide controlled subject indexing of objects in the Collections Management System (CMS), Vernon from Vernon Systems Limited. The structure of this thesaurus and other thesauri was created by Museum staff before the implementation of the CMS and is based on original subject indexing cards from the Library. Ever since implementation the thesauri have continued to be expanded and amended as new terms become needed to index the collection. The CMS is used to control this development ensuring, as much as possible, that the thesauri do not become corrupted or deviate from their intended use.
The list of aircraft terms is not an exhaustive list of all aircraft. It reflects the Royal Air Force Museum collections and the objects that have, up to the day the thesaurus was exported, been entered onto the CMS.
The guide includes a foreword by the Museum's Director General, Dr. Michael Fopp MA FMA FRAes.
The Royal Air Force Museum is pleased to be able to share this resource with the wider community and help to encourage the sharing of knowledge in the field of data management.
...ends
Links:
Aircraft Thesaurus: http://www.mda.org.uk/aircraft/
MDA Wordhoard: http://www.mda.org.uk/spectrum-terminology/index.htm
Royal Air Force Museum: www.rafmuseum.org
Vernon Systems Limited: www.vernonsystems.com
Kevin Ward
Head of Collections Management
Royal Air Force Museum
T: 020 8358 4885
www.rafmuseum.org
|