Overview
ABSTRACT
This article describes the nature, the origins, and the structure of the contemporary documentation thesaurus. It provides details on the successive phases and the diverse tasks and tools related to its construction and management. Finally, it addresses matters relating to the use of the thesaurus in computerized information systems without, however, characterizing specific systems or applications. To conclude this article, the thesaurus’ utilities are specified: aid to indexing, searching, or its use by search engines.
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Michèle HUDON: Professeur agrégé École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l'information Université de Montréal (Canada)
INTRODUCTION
A thesaurus is a document language, i.e. an artificial language designed to generate a formalized representation of the subjects covered by a document, on the one hand, and the wording of a user's questions, on the other, so that the user can locate the information or documents that are relevant and useful to him or her. The thesaurus is one of a wide variety of knowledge organization systems (KOS) available to facilitate the communication of information.
The thesaurus can now be used in digital form, and is an important component of contemporary information systems, both in traditional databases and on the web. Originally used by specialists trained in indexing and information retrieval, the thesaurus is now available in versions that can be used by anyone seeking information. Its structure also enables it to be used by search engines and natural language processing software, which use it as a knowledge base.
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KEYWORDS
thesaurus of descriptor | | | | | information retrieval | | indexing and searching languages | knowledge organization systems KOS
Documentary thesaurus
What is a thesaurus?
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"Digital documents and content management"
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