Thesaurus

This chapter documents the use and setup of the Thesaurus in Content Manager. For its functionality to be available, the feature Keyword Thesaurus must be selected in the System Options Features page.

A properly maintained and applied Thesaurus can greatly assist in the accurate retrieval of records.

If you always associate standard terms with a record or structure the record title from standard terms, retrieval will not be effected by the vagaries of everyday language.

A simple example are records concerning automobiles.

The use of a Thesaurus would lead to all records regarding automobiles to be associated with a standard term, for example, automobiles.

In everyday use, automobiles are described as:

• Cars
• Vehicles
• Motor Cars
• Sedans
• Autos, etc.

Relying just on indexing of words from record titles cannot lead to accurate retrieval.

A Thesaurus does not need to be complicated or hard to understand.

The following shows how a part of a Thesaurus might look:

Animal - top term
	Dogs - narrower term of Animals
		By Breed - node label, a dummy term which describes the basis by which the term has been further divided
			Corgi - narrower term of Dogs
			Dingo - narrower term of Dogs
			German Shepherd - narrower term of Dogs
			Poodle - narrower term of Dogs

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