Art and architecture thesaurus (abstract only)

Abstract

Designing and providing subject access to works of art has traditionally been very subjective. This is due to the fact that there are no standardized word lists which can be expected to meet the scope of all art collections. Whereas tailoring subject terms to the scope of a given collection is the most practical approach for the curator in charge of the collection, the researcher, who may not be an art specialist, often is frustrated when the listing of subject terms does not include the terms relevant for his/her purposes. This presentation will explore how the development of a thesaurus resolves the conflict of subject vocabulary. Specific examples will be drawn from four computer projects at the National Museum of American Art. Each of the projects varies in scope, yet a single subject classification guide has been developed for purposes of providing subject access to the contents of each project.Because a separate subject word list was not originally designed for each project, a thesaurus is now being developed which will allow for a listing of terms not used for indexing but which are relevant to both the scope of each project and anticipated researcher needs.From a practical viewpoint, the presentation will demonstrate how the computer can be used to generate terminology to be included in the thesaurus.