Controlled Vocabularies and Thesauri Flashcards
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What primarily distinguishes an ontology from a controlled vocabulary?
Answer: Ontologies define formal, machine-readable semantic relationships and logical axioms between concepts
Ontologies extend beyond terminology control to define formal semantic relationships and logical constraints that enable automated reasoning by machines.
Which approach is most effective when initially harvesting terms for a new controlled vocabulary?
Answer: Analyzing domain literature alongside user query logs to identify natural terminology
Combining domain literature analysis with user query logs captures both authoritative expert terminology and the natural language actual users employ.
A scope note (SN) in a thesaurus entry primarily serves to:
Answer: Clarify the intended meaning and limits of use for a specific term
Scope notes define the boundaries of a term's meaning to prevent ambiguous or inconsistent application by indexers and catalogers.
In SKOS, the property 'skos:narrower' is used to express:
Answer: A hierarchical relationship where the object concept is more specific than the subject
skos:narrower links a broader concept to a more specific subordinate concept, representing the standard BT/NT hierarchical relationship.
Which vocabulary governance practice best ensures long-term consistency in a controlled vocabulary?
Answer: Publishing vocabulary updates on a fixed periodic review cycle with documented change management
Periodic review cycles with documented change management balance currency with stability, maintaining user trust and backward compatibility.
What is the key functional difference between a classification scheme and a thesaurus?
Answer: A classification scheme assigns systematic notations to organize items, while a thesaurus manages terminology relationships for retrieval
Classification schemes provide systematic notational codes for arranging and collocating items, while thesauri focus on controlling synonyms, hierarchy, and associative term relationships for retrieval.
When integrating a controlled vocabulary with a search engine, query expansion using the vocabulary achieves what primary goal?
Answer: Retrieving relevant results even when users enter non-preferred or variant terms
Query expansion maps user-entered synonyms or non-preferred terms to their preferred equivalents, improving recall without sacrificing precision.