Stuart,

The U.S. Department of Education is using a vocabulary of slightly more
than 200 audience terms to catalog its web content.  The list was
constructed through analysis of 637 terms from the ERIC Thesaurus, 13
other vocabularies, and user search logs.  The list includes some terms
that pertain more to grantmaking, student loan, regulatory, and other
business processes than to educational resources, but you may find some of
the student and teacher categories relevant to your goal.

It's too early in the cataloging process for me to tell you which terms
the catalogers will gravitate towards and which they will never apply.
I'm attaching a copy of the list in MSWord format.  Additional information
is available at <http://www.ed.gov/internal/EDWebMetadata/>.  All of the
EDWeb vocabularies are in Z39.19 form with scope notes/definitions and use
terms, which I may be able to wrest from Oracle if you would find them
helpful.

Keith

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith M. Stubbs
Web Services
Office of the Chief Information Officer
US Dept of Education                                 (voice) 202-401-6014
7th and D Streets, SW ROB3 Room 4923-B                 (fax) 202-708-9863
Washington, DC  20202                      Internet:  [log in to unmask]

On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Stuart Sutton wrote:

> About a month ago, I posted a message in which I asked you to forward to the
> list any vocabularies about which you are aware that describe the various
> facets of the audience for an educational resource. [1]  The goal was to
> bring those terms together in one place and to categorize them according to
> general categories that have emerged through our discussions over the past
> year or so.  I have attached two files with the results--an Excel file with
> the terms, a rough stab at categorizing them using the categories already
> established plus two more that emerged from the data, and notations
> identifying the six projects in which they are used.  Some terms have been
> noted in more than one category.  And, I am sure, some have been improperly
> categorized or categorized in a politically incorrect manner. The file is a
> work in progress.  I hope to get additional vocabularies to include.  The
> second file is a Word file that simply lists the terms by category.  Please
> forgive me if I have somehow managed not to include anyone's
> contribution--it is in error and can obviously be fixed.
>
> The goal of this exercise was not to create an Audience vocabulary; or, at
> least not to do so at this time.  Rather, it was to see whether we sensed
> any need to have education-based qualifiers for the Audience element based
> on these categorizations to provide for more refined searching.  For
> example, terms in some of these classes (particularly the physical/emotional
> characteristics of the audience) represent statements regarding
> accessibility [2] that might prove very useful in discovery, evaluation and
> retrieval.
>
> There are a number of terms that I grouped in an "N/A" class including
> general terms (student, learner, pupil, public, etc.).  This is not intended
> to imply that these terms are not appropriate values for the Audience
> element since they clearly are.  I just did not see them as "refinements" of
> the general class of education-focused audiences.  There are also some
> entries that are not education-related at all--e.g., "tourists."  That is
> because I included all terms from the noted vocabularies and some of those
> vocabularies are intended to make statements about audiences beyond
> education (e.g., Australian Government Locator Service).
>
> I _excluded_ all terms having to do with "level" since the Working Group has
> already reached an agreement to forward a proposal for an Audience qualifier
> with the name Level to the Usage Board. [3]  I am preparing the formal
> proposal at this time with hope we might squeeze it into the Board's already
> busy Tokyo schedule.
>
> Refinements for the Audience element (other than Level) are on the Working
> Group agenda for our face-to-face meeting in Tokyo.
>
> Stuart
> ==============================================
> [1]
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0108&L=dc-education&F=&S=&P=5
> 6
> <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0108&L=dc-education&F=&S=&P=
> 56>
> [2]
> http://www.ilumina-project.org/home.nsf/ID/c6f66f1aba50f1fa852569e5005400c3/
> $file/access-eduprise_03-16-01_htm.htm
> <http://www.ilumina-project.org/home.nsf/ID/c6f66f1aba50f1fa852569e5005400c3
> /$file/access-eduprise_03-16-01_htm.htm>
> [3]
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0101&L=dc-education&O=A&P=768
> <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0101&L=dc-education&O=A&P=76
> 8>
>
> =========================================
> Stuart A. Sutton, Associate Professor
> Senior Research Scientist: Gateway to Educational
>    Materials (GEM)
> The Information School of the University of Washington
> Suite 370, Mary Gates Hall, Box 352840
> Seattle, WA  98195-2840
> (206) 685-6618(V) (206) 616-3152(F)
> http://www.iSchool.washington.edu <http://www.iSchool.washington.edu>
> ========================================
>  <<Audience_Characteristics.doc>>  <<Audience_Characteristics.xls>>
>
>