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Thesauri & controlled vocabularies
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Thesauri and Controlled Vocabularies
Registering a Standardized Vocabulary
How to register a controlled vocabulary or thesaurus
The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is mandated by the Treasury Board Information and Technology Standard TBITS 39.2, Controlled Vocabulary Standard (www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/its-nit/standards/tbits39/crit392_e.asp) as registrar of standardized vocabularies used in
Government of Canada (GoC). By implication, LAC will act as a broker between
the gc.ca domain and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI - http://dublincore.org/) to ensure compliance with the Dublin Core standard.
Registration of a vocabulary does not
constitute official sanction of the vocabulary by the Library and Archives Canada or the Treasury Board Secretariat Canada.
The function of this Registry is two-fold:
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To make standardized vocabularies available to search engines,
information creators and those involved in developing and maintaining
vocabularies;
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To provide a centralized mechanism for use in metadata elements for GoC
departments and agencies.
A vocabulary can be registered by submitting the required
information using the rules and criteria listed below.
Please note that before developing a new controlled vocabulary, federal organizations should consult the 'Guide for the Development and Maintenance of Controlled Vocabularies in the Government of Canada' and the 'Government of Canada Metadata Implementation Guide for Web Resources'.
The Government of Canada wishes to maintain a small list of recognized schemes for usage by its organizations. By doing so, it ensures that schemes meet the basic requirements of a controlled vocabulary and prevents interoperability issues that may be caused by a multiplicity of schemes.
A. Criteria for registering standardized vocabularies
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Controlled vocabularies vocabularies, thesauri, flat lists of preferred terms and value sets or additional standardized lists may be registered if deemed to be of use within the Government of Canada context.
A controlled vocabulary is a list of standardized terminology, words or phrases, used for indexing or content analysis and information retrieval usually in a defined information domain. It is characterized by consistent format, syntax and may include synonyms and cross-references. In a controlled vocabulary, one of a set of possible terms representing a concept can be used as the representative term for that concept. Consequently, all resources about, or pertinent to, that particular concept, within a body of information resources, can be indexed using the representative term.
A thesaurus is a tool used for vocabulary control. Using a thesaurus improves search results. A thesaurus is a sub-set of the language we use in daily life. It includes information about the relationships of words and phrases (i.e. broader terms, narrower terms, preferred terms, non-preferred, or related terms). A thesaurus is normally restricted to a specific subject field (e.g. health, education, government documents). Searchers can use terminology they are familiar with to find the most relevant information.
A flat list of preferred terms is an established list of standardized terminology for use in indexing and retrieval of information. It may or may not be arranged in alphabetical order and does not display relationships between terms. A flat list is normally restricted to a specific field kind of information (e.g. types of documents, kinds of users targeted by subject content). It is usually relatively short for ease of locating terms.
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Vocabularies developed and maintained within the GoC are registered.
Well known external standardized vocabularies are also part of the registry. These vocabularies are added by LAC if they are determined to be of use to GoC organizations.
GoC-owned vocabularies must be created and maintained by trusted authorities.
A trusted authority has a mandate within the department to develop and maintain the vocabulary. Examples of trusted authorities within the GoC include centers of expertise such as the Statistics Canada Library and Information Centre, the Depository Services Program at Communications Canada and the Intellectual Management Office of Library and Archives Canada as well as smaller entities creating and maintaining vocabularies such as members of Clusters and Gateways.
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GoC owned vocabularies must be bilingual.
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GoC owned vocabularies must be publicly available on the WWW.
B. Vocabulary Titles
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Standardized vocabularies will be named with their official titles.
The name of the organization maintaining or owning the list is rarely sufficient since it does not unambiguously stand for the vocabulary alone.
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Titles of standardized vocabularies are provided in all languages for vocabularies that are bilingual or multilingual.
Example:
Statistics Canada Thesaurus and Thésaurus de Statistique Canada
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Vocabularies that are derived from, modified and/or translated by someone other than the original owner should be assigned a local name based on the service, project or provider name.
Example:
The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) has developed a French version
of a subset of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) (www.getty.edu/research/tools/
vocabulary/aat/index.html),
an English language tool, to describe resources in its collections. This
vocabulary, though based on the AAT, would be registered with a local name.
Labels are needed for machine identification of the vocabulary. They are used as scheme names in meta data elements requiring the use of controlled vocabulary.
Vocabulary labels will be assigned by the departmental registering agent using the following guidelines:
Labels must be unique. Existing official acronyms or short names may be used as labels. Official government FIP acronyms may be used in labels. The first two letters of the label for all schemes developed specifically for use in the GoC must be gc. No punctuation is included.
Examples:
Statistics Canada Thesaurus = gcstc
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus = gccore
NOTE: labels do not need to be bilingual as the label is for machine rather than human use.
D. Who may register a standardized vocabulary
The trusted authority/maintenance agency or an authority acting on their behalf, will submit a registration form to the standardized vocabulary registrar at the LAC. LAC will register well known externally owned vocabularies on behalf of the GoC. Questions should be addressed to the LAC Metadata Coordinator (meta_coord@lac-bac.gc.ca).
E. How to register a vocabulary
Use the electronic registration form. You will receive confirmation of the registration.
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