Government of Canada
Core Subject Thesaurus

Library and Archives Canada has taken over responsibility for managing the Core Subject Thesaurus. Please contact the CST editor at CSTed_redTSB@lac-bac.gc.ca for all questions related to changes or enhancements to this tool.

Introduction

• Introduction
• Background
• Coverage
• Official Languages
• Audience
• Basic Thesaurus Characteristics
• Thesaurus Display
• Display Elements

Introduction

The Government of Canada (GoC) Core Subject Thesaurus Web site has been developed to help Content managers, Librarians and Metadata developers in federal departments and agencies to select controlled subject terms for metadata requirements under TBITS 39.1 & 2. The GoC Core Subject Thesaurus (CST) is to be used as a source of standardized terminology for the indexing and retrieval of GoC information resources in various formats. Its main function to standardize the external form and meaning of index terms, thus ensuring that a particular concept or subject will always be represented in the same way in GoC metadata resources.

Background

The CST is derived from the Depository Services Program (DSP) Subject Thesaurus. The DSP thesaurus was developed over a number of years as a source of subject descriptors to be applied to bibliographic records in the Government of Canada Publications Database. It was developed in accordance with the Guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri (ISO 2788-1986) and the Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual thesauri (ISO 5964-1985). It is thus fully compatible with other thesauri that adhere to ISO standards.

Coverage

The CST has been developed on the basis of a number of indexing projects that extracted broad, high-level terminology used in GoC publications. Therefore, it represents the language generally used in information resources across government. By design, it does not include specialized terminology used in specific and limited disciplines. All fields of knowledge are represented, but to varying degrees in specific subject areas.

Official Languages

The English and French versions of the CST were developed and are maintained simultaneously and neither language is to be considered the dominant or source language in this vocabulary. Neither language is a translation of the other; they are each in a relationship of equivalence. The English thesaurus (CST) and the French thesaurus (TSB) are identical in their coverage but their respective relational structures are not identical due to the natural conceptual and terminological differences between the two languages.

Audience

The intended audience for this Web site consists primarily of those who have the responsibility for building, enhancing or revising Web sites within the Government of Canada. This includes Web developers, librarians, content providers, indexers, Web technologists and communications personnel. It is anticipated that indexers will use this Web site as an authoritative source of controlled vocabulary from the GoC Core Subject Thesaurus. Some ancillary resources have been provided to assist and guide these activities.

Basic Thesaurus Characteristics

A thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary arranged in a known order (not necessarily alphabetic) in which equivalence (USE; USE FOR), homographic (variant spellings), hierarchical (Broader Term; Narrower Term) and associative (Related Term) relationships among terms are clearly displayed and identified by standardized relationship indicators. A thesaurus also contains synonyms, or “lead-in” terms that may be used as the conceptual point of entry by searchers or indexers, instead of the designated indexing terms. As such, they “lead” users to the “preferred” term that is consistently used in indexing information resources that contain the subject or concept that the user is looking for.

Thesaurus Display

Subject Descriptors

In the CST, subject descriptors (also known as “indexing” or “preferred” terms) are displayed so as to make their associative, equivalence, and hierarchical relationships obvious at a glance. Subject descriptors are terms that are authorized for use in indexing and may be used for searching indexed information resources. In the alphabetical display of subject terms, descriptors appear in bold face.

Lead-in Terms

Lead-in terms (also known as “non-preferred” terms) are not used in indexing. They are synonyms or alternate forms of subject descriptors that point to or “lead-in” to a single “preferred” descriptor. In the alphabetical display of subject terms, lead-in terms appear in regular typeface and in italics. Lead-in terms are followed by a reference to the authorized descriptor for the concept.

Form of Terms

In this thesaurus and by convention, English descriptors representing concrete objects or entities (things can be counted) normally appear in the plural form (e.g., “Colleges”, “Persons with disabilities”). Descriptors representing abstract concepts or collections of things (i.e., abstract or collective nouns) appear in the singular form (e.g., “Air quality”, “Energy”). In contrast, and again by linguistic convention, terms in the French thesaurus generally appear in the singular form. All terms appear in direct rather than inverted order as they would in natural speech (e.g., “Elementary education”, not “Education, elementary”)

Form of Display

The following example shows the form of display of an individual preferred term record.

Libraries

     FRENCH:
          Bibliothèque

     Subject Category:
          IN Information and Communications        
       
     Scope Note:
          A collection of books and other materials
          maintained for reading, consultation, study and
          research and organized to provide access to a
          specific clientele, with a staff trained to
          provide services to meet the needs of its users. 

     Used For:
          Documentation services 
          Library collections 

     Broader Term:
          Cultural institutions 
       
     Narrower Term:
          Digital libraries
          Government libraries
          National libraries
          Public libraries
          Special libraries 
        
     Related Term:
          Bibliographic data interchange
          Cataloguing
          Interlibrary loans
          Reference services

      

Display Elements

Libraries

The subject descriptor of record (“Libraries”)

FRENCH

The French equivalent appears in regular typeface immediately below the descriptor heading. In the French thesaurus (TSB), the French descriptor is shown with its own set of relations to other terms in that thesaurus.

Used for:

Under the category “Used for” are terms that are synonymous with the authorized indexing term. Synonyms are included in the thesaurus to lead indexers to the authorized indexing term; hence, they are known as “lead-in” terms. Do not select “Used for” terms as indexing terms; use only the authorized indexing terms (also known as “preferred terms”).

Lead-in term records are displayed as follows:

Documentation services

Subject Classification:

Information and Communications

Use:

Libraries

Note the instruction to use “Libraries” instead of “Documentation services”

Broader Terms:

Broader terms are subject descriptors that are more general than the descriptor of record. In this example, “Cultural institutions” are broader than “Libraries”. Generally, broader and narrower terms are in a relationship of either a “genus / species” or “whole / part” relationship to the descriptor of record

Narrower Terms:

Narrower terms are more restricted in meaning than the descriptor of record.

Related Terms:

Related terms have a semantic, contextual or usage association with the descriptor of record that is exclusive of a “genus / species” or “whole / part” relationship.