I think we have to be careful about getting precious here. As Phil has 
already pointed out, the whole point about using controlled vocabulaires is 
to help users to find the information that they are looking for, preferably 
using intuitive terms. If we follow that logic then a brick is made of fired 
clay but a house is made of bricks. Phil has already pointed out that many 
records dealing with buildings use the term "brick" for the material used, 
presumably for good reason.

So, what we need to do is to use the scope note to give guidance on its use, 
and here the issue of scale that has been refered to is crucial. It is as 
illogical to say that a brick is made of "brick" as to say that a building 
is made of "fired clay". The reality is that we would want to know if the 
buliding was made of brick rather than tile. Similalry, we would want to 
know that the brick was made of "fired clay" rather than "mud". Of course 
this means that we we might have to have different types of brick in the 
thesaurus depending on the material that the brick is made of (or 
multiple-index using "brick" and "fired clay"). But if shape is important 
then we might also want to say that the material used to build a building is 
dressed stone rather than just stone. Let's give our users a chance here and 
not become too pedantic. Before we give the answer we need to think about 
what the question will be.

Best wishes,

Matthew
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher Cumberpatch" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 9:23 PM
Subject: Re: [FISH] His Dark Materials Thesaurus


>    No bricks are made of brick - bricks (regularly shaped blocks used for 
> construction) can be made of fired clay, mud, even compressed straw or 
> wood pulp and probably other things. 'Lego' bricks are made of plastic. 
> Bricks are objects, brick is not a substance. The same goes for tiles 
> (roof, wall or floor).
>
> Chris Cumberpatch
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Pat Reynolds" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: "Chris Cumberpatch" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 7:53 PM
> Subject: Re: His Dark Materials Thesaurus
>
>
>>I have a couple of comments:
>>
>> I have seen a rabbit cast in brick (using a rabbit-shaped blancmange 
>> bowl). Never under-estimate what humans will do with materials.
>>
>> Nor are all bricks are made of brick. It seems to me that thesauri of 
>> forms are best kept separate from thesauri of materials
>>
>> Thesaurus are being used now as glossaries on online databases - this may 
>> or may not influence your thinking.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Pat
>> -- 
>> Pat Reynolds
>>
>>
>