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THESAURI AND CONTROLLED VOCABULARY AT TE PAPA
Adrian KingstonCollection Information Manager - Digital Assets & DevelopmentMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
+I am not a thesaurus expert
+Not a dynamic subject
+Covering a large subject area very quickly
+ Some developments are just ideas at this stage
+Attempt to comply with ISO 2788, Guidelines for Monolingual Thesauri (and Multilingual when appropriate)
DISCLAIMERS
+Object Classification- +Three level hierarchical classification derived from Chennel OR +Subject classification from unknown source
+Production Place- Three level hierarchy for places, though boundaries not always useful
+Few picklists, most overridden
+Very little control over “parties” creation
+2003 starting to standardise the lists in preparation of new system
+Taxonomy- Linnaean
PREVIOUS SYSTEM - TE KAHUI
+Considerable emphasis on vocabulary control
+Approx 75% of the Humanities catalogue vocabulary controlled
+Approx 80% of Natural Environment catalogue is vocabulary controlled
+Most Lookups are not editable, users can not modify thesaurus
EMu
+Object Classification: Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) Components, Furnishings and Equipment, Visual and Verbal Communications
+Materials: AAT Material Facet
+Technique: AAT Processes and Techniques facet
+Subject: Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I Subject Terms
+Period / Style: AAT Style and Periods Facet
+Concept / Activities: AAT Associated Concepts Facet
+Associated place, production place, birth/death place; Getty Thesaurus Geographic Names
THESAURI AT TE PAPA
+Iwi/Ethnic Group: Statistics NZ Standards for Ethnicity (Ethnic Group), Ministry of Culture and Heritage Iwi list (Iwi)
+Language: ISO 639 Codes for the representation of names of languages (selected)
+Production Role/Party Specialties: Getty Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) roles list
LOOK-UP LISTS AT TE PAPA
Difficulties
+Big change
+How to find the correct term?
+Selecting and attaching multiples
+Language
+Issues with general cataloguing skills
+ Most hadn’t used a real thesaurus before, found the concepts confusing
Solutions
+List views for faster browsing of search results
+Shortcuts (airport codes for main cities etc) combined with also-search
+Training sessions
+EMuhelp provides constant advocacy and advice to users
+Minor tweaks to EMu functionality
USERS
PROS OF AAT
+In theory, can cater for any human-made object
+Helps with interoperabilty
+Authoritative , collaborative, respected, frequently recommended
+Covers art well, and most social history objects
+Good scope notes, references
+Getty did all the work!
CONS OF AAT
+Huge
+Complicated, not natural thought process for many people
+ Language (American English, aluminum)
+Users think it can be too specific
PROS OF TGN
+Covers the entire world!
+Interoperable
+Respected, recommended
+ They did all the work!
CONS OF TGN
+Language (preferred to whom) Deutschland , Suomi, Zhonghua- Germany, Finland, China
+Te Papa is usually describing New Zealand or the Pacific, rest of the world can get in the way
+Ambiguity (Wellington)
PROS OF TGM I
+Covers huge range of subject matter
CONS OF TGM I
+Arranged alphabetically, harder to find terms.
+Keywords more than thesaurus
+Language (American English)
+Vernacular
+Not much in the way of scope notes
+Objects+Simplify, cut down (we don’t collect buildings)+Adjust language/spelling (watercolors)+Remain compatible with AAT (alternates)+Mäori, Pacific thesauri (separate from, but complimentary, to AAT)+Bulk changes of legacy data to new terms
+Materials +As above+NZ specific materials (kauri, rimu, pounamu)
+Period +Add historical periods specific to Matauranga Maori (traditional knowledge) and New Zealand colonisation
WHAT WE PLAN TO DO
+TGN
+Swap preferred term around, English preferred rather than vernacular preferred (China, rather than Zhonghua, Germany rather than Deutschland)
+Replace New Zealand with LINZ gazetteer? Gives:
+historical and archaeological (pa sites) sites, +latitude and longitude co-ordinates, +plus more accurate rivers, hills and other geographic and historic features
WHAT WE PLAN TO DO
Natural Environment
+In addition to Linnaean taxonomy, need non-scientific/general public friendly classifications, eg:
+Habitat (forest canopy, intertidal zone)+Predator, scavenger etc+Endangered, protected, extinct etc+Introduced, native etc+Good to eat, poisonous etc+Traditional uses, eg; feathers etc+Associations with Atua (gods)
WHAT WE PLAN TO DO
Previous changes:
+Searching within a facet (from the thesaurus)
+Display of full string from thesaurus hierarchy to give context
+Partly due to not being able to change from detail view to browse view+ Don’t have to open the broader term record, then its broader term, then its broader term, then…
+Searching non-usable terms from the catalogue
EMu FUNCTIONALITY
(Possible) Future changes
+IRN instead of word matching+Need to search on the actual term, not words+Currently need to bulk replaces if change a term in thesaurus
EMu FUNCTIONALITY
+ Internal uses; collection management, conservation, research, etc
+Reliable searches for the public and researchers
+CIDOC CRM, Collections online. Consistent terminology core component of (automatically) building relationships between objects, people, places, and topics.
WHY