Planning controlled vocabularies for the

UK public sector

Stella G Dextre Clarke Consultant to Office of the e-

Envoy

The context of planning Responsibility of the Office of the e-

Envoy (OeE) Part of its project to develop a

metadata framework and standard Vocabulary debate began August

2000 Consultation among government

departments and other public bodies

What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked to

detailed departmental vocabularies- High-level thesaurus- High-level taxonomy

C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus

Search Thesaurus Not used for (human) indexing;

only for searching Types of search thesaurus:

-Expansion via synonym rings-List of term associations-Probabilistic list of term

associations

What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked

to detailed departmental vocabularies

C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus

What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked

to detailed departmental vocabularies

C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus E: Mainly a discussion forum

What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked to

detailed departmental vocabularies C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus E: Mainly a discussion forum F: Taxonomy for automated use

Focus of decisions

Models A and B require consensus from all departments

Models C, D, E or F can be adopted at any time, unilaterally or however

Model A: Full thesaurus Superior retrieval performance Little understood by end-users Demanding at the time of meta-

tagging Quality management essential Verdict: probably not the most

practical proposal

Model B: High level taxonomy The chosen model Relatively simple to build and maintain Allows freedom at departmental level Departments maintain mapping tables

from their own vocabularies. Widespread implementation achievable Leaves open the option of automated

meta-tagging

“Taxonomy” – what’s that? To be the “UK Government

Category List” (GCL) It will evolve from an existing

Policy Category List Basically a simple polyhierarchical

classification scheme With inbuilt synonyms and

relationships, like a thesaurus

Planning – what’s next? Workshop consensus is behind us Departments now planning

implementation, especially mapping procedures

Existing PCL under review, to develop the GCL

Software functional requirements to be established

In conclusion… …We’re ready to start! Distributed system, needing minimal

intervention at the centre Structures in place for consultation and

feedback Departments enthusiastic to implement Options wide open for harnessing new

technologies and giving the public first class access to information.