Book Description

In response to many inquiries from users of the Thesaurus of ASTIA Descriptors and from others interested in the use of controlled vocabularies for mechanized information retrieval, this paper is offered as an outline of the general plan to be followed in the preparation of a Second Edition of the ASTIA Thesaurus. The philosophies of the descriptor and thesaurus approaches to information retrieval are discussed, with particular emphasis on the relationships among descriptors. Although this document was intended as a guide line for individuals who had been invited to participate in the preparation of the Second Edition, the discussion of the thesaurus philosophy is believed to be of general interest to documentalists. Included is a bibliography which cites papers dealing with the general concept of technical vocabularies.(Author).