THSRS Reference Manual þ School of Library and Information Science University of Western Ontario Based on Tim Craven's original documentation WordPerfect version by Gord Nickerson TABLE OF CONTENTS What is THSRS?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Creating a Thesaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Saving a Thesaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Displaying a Thesaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Finding a heading in the thesaurus display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Printing a Thesaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Disk File Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Modifying your Thesaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Changing the current relation type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Adding a term relation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Adding a scope note under the current heading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Deleting a term relation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Thesaurus Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Collecting and selecting terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Preferred terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Reducing a set of terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 What to do with terms with more than one meaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Introducing new terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 How to break up compound terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 When to prefer compound terms in principle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Rules for preferring compound terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Non-preferred terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Types of non-preferred terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Semantic relationships between terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 When to use a BT/NT relationship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 What is the relationship between BT and NT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 How many broader terms can a term have? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 When should a BT/NT relationship be omitted?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 When to use an RT relationship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 What is the relationship between RT and RT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Types of RT relationships sometimes found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Guides to application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 What is THSRS? THSRS is a software package that assists in creating, modifying, viewing, and printing out a small thesaurus. THSRS recognizes the standard USE, UF, BT, NT, and RT relation types and also handles brief scope notes (SN). It also protects against certain simple errors of thesaurus structure. Throughout a THSRS session, the user sees a display of a portion of the thesaurus on the screen. Getting Started THSRS is available on the ABC Lab network. Place your data disk in Drive B: of one of the Lab workstations. At the A> prompt type THSRS and press the key. When THSRS is loaded a file menu screen is displayed and you are presented with the following choices: Key Function F1 name Names your thesaurus F2 load Loads an existing thesaurus F3 write Writes thesaurus to a general-use file F4 merge Merges a general-use file into your thesaurus F5 return Creates a new thesaurus When beginning a new thesaurus it is a good idea to name it before entering any data. Then, as data is entered and changes made, they can be saved to disk by pressing the F7 key. To name your thesaurus press the F1 key and type in B:filename where filename is a name of up to eight characters, i.e. METALS or ERIC. NOTE: names cannot include an extension, THSRS automatically adds .THS to the filename. To start a new thesaurus just press F5 and the main menu is displayed. The function keys are used to perform most commands. The following options are available: Function key Purpose F1 New HEADing term F2 KILL a term F3 (reserved for future use). F4 CHANGE wording of the current heading term F5 FIND F6 ZOOMs the display F7 SAVE F8 FILE F9 PRINT F10 HELP Other keys PgUp Moves the thesaurus display back 10 lines PgDn Moves the thesaurus display forward 10 lines Esc EXIT You may also enter the following commands, followed by the key. SN Enter SCOPE NOTES USE Enter PREFERRED TERMS UF Enter NON-PREFERRED TERMS BT Enter BROADER TERMS. NT Enter NARROWER TERMS. RT Enter other RELATED TERMS. * DELETE RELATIONS between the heading term and the terms you enter. Other strings of characters followed by the key will usually be treated as terms being entered. Pressing the key by itself moves you along the standard sequence: SN, UF, BT, NT, RT, new heading. Creating a Thesaurus From the main menu press F1 to start with a new heading. Type in a heading, such as LIBRARY CATALOGS and press . The heading is placed on the screen and the SN prompt is displayed. At the SN prompt type in a scope note, such as LISTS OF LIBRARY MATERIALS and press the key. Add another SN or press to move to the UF prompt. Type in a used for term such as DICTIONARY CATALOGS and press . Add another UF term or press to display the BT prompt. At the BT prompt type in a broader term, such as CATALOGS and press . Add another BT or press to display the NT prompt. Type in a narrower term, such as BOOK CATALOGS and press . Add another NT or press to display the RT prompt. Type in a related term, such as BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES and press . Add another RT or press . At the Enter New Heading prompt type in a new heading and repeat the sequence. A typical thesaurus might look like this: LIBRARY CATALOGS SN ~LISTS OF LIBRARY MATERIALS UF DICTIONARY CATALOGS BT CATALOGS NT BOOK CATALOGS RT BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES INDEXES LIBRARY MATERIALS ONLINE CATALOGS Saving a Thesaurus To save your thesaurus to disk you first have to name the file. This may be done from the opening screen with the F1 key or from the main menu by pressing the F8 key to display the file menu. Then press F1 and type in B:filename; i.e. B:ERIC and press . NOTE: Do not add an extension to your file name as THSRS will automatically add the extension .THS to the filename. Once the file is named press F7 (SAVE) from the main menu to save the current thesaurus to your disk. It is a good idea to save your work frequently. Displaying a Thesaurus The screen can only display part of a thesaurus. You can use the PgUp and PgDn keys to move up and down 10 lines of the thesaurus. To change the view the F6 (ZOOM) key on the main menu can be used to control the thesaurus display. The following views of your thesaurus are available: FULL full alphabetical format SHORT summary list of terms TREE hierarchical format Finding a heading in the thesaurus display Select the F5 (FIND) option from the main menu. This allows you to search the thesaurus for a term. What you want to do involves 'entering' a term. One way you can 'enter' a term is just to type it in and press the 'Return' key. You can also 'enter' a term that already appears on the screen by positioning the cursor on the line containing the term and pressing the key. Printing a Thesaurus Before printing, you should save your thesaurus, in case a problem with the printer causes THSRS to halt. Listings are printed on the Fujitsu printer in Lab B. To use a different printer select the printer before running THSRS.  To print a full alphabetical thesaurus press F9 and then F1.  To print a list of terms press F9 and then F2.  To print a hierarchical listing, based on BT/NT relations press F9 and then F3.  To print the THSRS screen display hold down the key and press the key. Press the key to send your thesaurus to the printer. THSRS will also allow you to redirect output from the printer to a disk file. To send the output to a text (ASCII) file on your data disk press F9 and when prompted to: enter path or just press return for printer type in B:filename and press ; i.e. B:ERIC.LST to save the listing to your data disk. This text file may be printed from DOS or brought into WordPerfect with the CTRL F5 (TEXT IN) option. To print the file from DOS at the A> prompt type COPY B:filename PRN for example; COPY B:ERIC.LST PRN and the file is printed on the Fujitsu printer in Lab B. To import this file into WordPerfect run WordPerfect and press CTRL F5 (Text In/Out) and choose option 1 - DOS Text from the menu: 1 DOS Text; 2 Password; 3 Save As; 4 Comment; 5 Spreadsheet: 0 and then choose option 3 - Retrieve from the DOS file menu. 1 Save; 2 Retrieve (CR/LF to [HR]); 3 Retrieve (CR/LF to [SRt]):0 When prompted for the document to be retrieved type in B:filename and press the key. Disk File Operations Ensure that your data disk is in the B: drive. The disk needs to have sufficient space for your file and should not be write-protected. To save your thesaurus under the current thesaurus name press the F7 key. The thesaurus file will be given the current thesaurus name plus the extension ".THS". If you did not previously name your thesaurus with the F8 key then it is saved under the name THSRS. To load a previously stored thesaurus press the F8 key and then the F2 key. The file you want should be on your disk. It should have the extension ".THS"; for example, "THSRS.THS". The file should be a correct THSRS file, created by one of the microcomputer versions of THSRS. To write your thesaurus to a general-use file press the F8 key and then the F3 key. A general-use file can be merged with another thesaurus or can be made use of by other software such as a database management system. The file will automatically be given the current thesaurus name plus the extension ".SEQ"; e.g., "THSRS.SEQ". The file will consist of lines of the form: TERM1!RELCODE!TERM2 For example: AARDVARKS!BT!ANIMALS Note that inverse relations will not be included in the file. Warning: if any of the lines of a general-use file is longer than 255 characters, THSRS will ignore the extra characters when merging the file. To merging a general-use file press the F8 key and then the F4 key. The file you want needs to be on the disk. Its name should consist of the current thesaurus name plus the extension ".SEQ". The file should consist of lines of the form: TERM1!RELCODE!TERM2 For example: AARDVARKS!BT!ANIMALS Warning: if any of the lines in the file is longer than 255 characters THSRS will ignore the extra characters. Modifying your Thesaurus To establish a different term as the current heading either type it in and press the key or if the heading already appears on the screen just position the cursor on the line containing the term and press the key. If the heading was not already a term in the thesaurus, it will be added automatically. Changing the current relation type Valid relation type codes are: * SN USE UF BT NT RT If the heading already has a UF, BT, NT, or RT relation to another term, then the relation type "USE" will not be accepted. If the heading has a USE relation to another term and you enter the relation type "UF", "BT", "NT", or "RT", the first preferred term will automatically be substituted as the heading. To change along the standard sequence: SN, UF, BT, NT, RT just press the key. For other changes in relation type, type in the relation code and press the key. Adding a term relation For you to add a term relation, one of the terms to be related must be the current heading. In addition, the current relation type should be the relation type you want to use. What you want to do will involve 'entering' a term. One way you can 'enter' a term is just to type it in and press the key. You can also 'enter' a term that already appears on the screen by positioning the cursor on the line containing the term and pressing the key. The appropriate inverse entry will be made automatically. Adding a scope note under the current heading If the current relation code is "SN", you can add a scope note just by typing it in and pressing the key. If SN is not the current relation code press the key to cycle through the relation codes until SN is displayed. Note that an individual scope note may not be no longer than 254 characters, but that multiple scope notes may be entered for a given heading and that they will file according to their initial characters. To aid in filing the thesaurus entries, THSRS automatically prefixes a tilde ("~") to each scope note. Deleting a term relation One of the terms in the relation to be deleted must be the current heading. In addition, the current relation type should be '*'. Ensure the relation type is '*' and then enter the second term. One way you can 'enter' a term is just to type it in and press the key. You can also 'enter' a term that already appears on the screen by positioning the cursor on the line containing the term and pressing the key. To delete a scope note that appears on the screen press the F2 key, position the cursor on the line containing the scope note, and press the key. To change the current thesaurus name press the F8 key, then press the F1 key. A suitable thesaurus name normally consists of up to eight letters. To specify that the thesaurus is stored on drive B, prefix "B:" to the name; i.e. B:METALS. If you save your thesaurus, the file will have the current thesaurus name with the extension ".THS". When you first run THSRS, the current thesaurus name is always "THSRS". If no name has been specified THSRS will try and save your thesaurus under the default name. To modify the current heading term press the F4 key. Thesaurus Construction A thesaurus is a tool for vocabulary control. It contains information on preferred and non-preferred terms for indexing and searching and on semantic relationships between terms. It also typically guides in the application of the preferred terms. In addition, some thesauri contain rules for synthesizing terms. Collecting and selecting terms Thesaurus construction requires a set of terms. Sources from which terms can be collected include:  queries by patrons  titles, abstracts, or full texts of indexed documents  existing thesauri, indexes, etc.  glossaries, dictionaries, etc.  subject specialists What forms do terms take? Where possible, terms in a thesaurus should:  be nouns or noun phrases  be plural for things that can be counted - for example, "TUBES"  be singular for 'mass' nouns - for example, "WOOD"  be singular for processes, properties, and conditions  not be inverted - for example, "RADAR ANTENNAS" rather then "ANTENNAS, RADAR"  exclude prepositions - for example, "CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM" rather than "METABOLISM OF CARBOHYDRATES"  exclude punctuation marks and abbreviations Preferred terms Preferred terms serve as focal points where all the information about a concept is collected. Reducing a set of terms The many terms used in ordinary language can be reduced to a much smaller set of preferred terms for indexing. Steps in this reduction may include:  consolidating spelling variants; e.g., "AESTHETICS" and "ESTHETICS"  consolidating synonyms; e.g., "AUTOMATION" and "MECHANIZATION"  consolidating quasi-synonyms or near-synonyms; e.g., "ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT" and "EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT"  breaking up terms into their 'semantic factors'; e.g., "ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT" into "ACHIEVEMENT" and "EDUCATION" What to do with terms with more than one meaning A homonym is an expression that has the same spelling as another expression, but a different meaning. A thesaurus contains a unique term for each meaning of a homonym. A unique term may be created out of a homonym by adding a number or a parenthetical qualifier; for example, "PORT 1", "PORT (WINE)". Introducing new terms Terms that represent broad concepts may be introduced because they are useful in broad searches; for example, "TRAFFIC STATIONS", because it can be used to replace a search for "AIRPORTS OR BUS TERMINALS OR TRAIN STATIONS OR HELIPORTS OR...". Terms may also be introduced because they help to clarify the structure of semantic relationships; for example, "EMPLOYMENT OF SPECIFIC GROUPS", to clarify the relationship between "EMPLOYMENT" and "YOUTH EMPLOYMENT". How to break up compound terms Facet analysis can be useful in analyzing a compound concept, into its components. Each facet is like a question. The corresponding component for the given compound concept is the answer to the question. For instance, Compound concept: "BEAN CURD" Questions: "What is the "What is the "food source?" physical state?" Component/answer: "SOYBEAN" "SEMI-SOLID" When to prefer compound terms in principle Compound terms should generally be preferred if:  combining terms is not possible either at the indexing stage or at the searching stage  too many terms would otherwise be required to index an item  the resulting number of preferred terms is not too large  indexing and searching are generally easier using the compound terms Rules for preferring compound terms In deciding on whether to prefer a compound term, the following rules may be helpful:  if the term is likely to be used frequently in indexing or searching  if the term's components occur frequently in different syntactic relationships; e.g., "Library schools", "School libraries"  if the term is needed in the structure of semantic relationships; especially, if any narrower concepts are represented by preferred terms  if in doubt Non-preferred terms Non-preferred terms are included in a thesaurus mainly to help users find the appropriate preferred terms. Non-preferred terms may also help define the scope of preferred terms. A non-preferred term is normally linked to a corresponding preferred term by a USE relationship. The corresponding relationship in the opposite direction is UF ("Used For"). For example, PERIODICALS SERIALS USE SERIALS UF PERIODICALS Here the preferred term is "SERIALS" and the corresponding non-preferred term is "PERIODICALS". Types of non-preferred terms Non-preferred terms can be categorized into three main types, depending on their semantic relationship to the corresponding preferred terms: A non-preferred term may be a synonym of ATTORNEY the preferred term USE LAWYER A non-preferred term may correspond to a DISEASE concept that overlaps widely with that of USE ILLNESS the preferred term A non-preferred term may represent a POLYETHYLENE concept that is almost always associated USE PLASTIC with that of the preferred term. Often, such a non-preferred term represents a narrower concept than the preferred term Semantic relationships between terms The main semantic relationships indicated between preferred terms in a thesaurus are: BT 'broader term' NT 'narrower term' RT 'related term' Why indicate semantic relationships? Indicating semantic relationships helps in several aspects of information management:  checking whether a term should be used in indexing a given item or in formulating a given search specification  choosing the correct level of generality in indexing and searching  searching in response to broad inclusive queries  collocating related entries  sharing indexing When to use a BT/NT relationship To decide whether there is a BT/NT relationship between two preferred terms X and Y, you can use one of the following tests:  Should a search for items related to X find all items indexed by Y?  Does the relationship between the two concepts fall into one of the following categories: class/subclass or class/member (for example, "VEGETABLE" - "SPINACH"); whole/part (for example, "SCIENCE" - "PHYSICS", "AUTOMOBILE" - "AUTOMOBILE ENGINE") Analyzing compound concepts into their components can also be useful in deciding on BT/NT relationships. What is the relationship between BT and NT? Normally, BT and NT are 'inverse' relationships. In other words, if X is a broader term to Y, then Y is a narrower term to X, and vice versa. For example, if a thesaurus contains the entry: PENS BT WRITING MATERIALS you would expect it also to have the entry WRITING MATERIALS NT PENS How many broader terms can a term have? A thesaurus is usually 'polyhierarchical'; that is, a given term can have more than one broader term. For example, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BT PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY Polyhierarchy avoids futile arguments about the "best" broader term to choose. Some terms in a thesaurus have no broader terms. Such terms may be the names of broad subject fields such as "SCIENCE" or simply happen to have no broader terms. When should a BT/NT relationship be omitted? If X is a broader term than Y, which in turn is a broader term than Z, a thesaurus generally does not explicitly show a BT/NT relationship between X and Z. For example, PLANT PRODUCT and FRUIT NT FRUIT NT FRESH FRUIT but not PLANT PRODUCT NT FRESH FRUIT When to use an RT relationship To decide whether there is an RT relationship between two preferred terms X and Y that cannot have a BT/NT relationship, you can use the following test:  Should an indexer or a searcher considering using X be reminded of the existence of Y? What is the relationship between RT and RT? Normally, RT is its own 'inverse' relationship. In other words, if X is a related term to Y, then Y is a related term to X. For example, if a thesaurus contains the entry PENS RT CALLIGRAPHY you would expect it also to have the entry: CALLIGRAPHY RT PENS Types of RT relationships sometimes found BOILERS --> STEAM PIPES Part LASERS --> COHERENCE Property STILL CAMERA --> PHOTOGRAPHS Product SHIPBUILDING --> SHIPS " ADAPTIVE FILTERS --> SIGNAL PROCESSING Application LANDING (FLIGHT) --> LANDING GEAR Device FOREIGN LANGUAGES --> LANGUAGE LABORATORY Place LEISURE READING --> LEISURE TIME Time COUNSELING --> COUNSELORS Agent JUVENILE DELINQUENCY --> HOSTILITY Cause CHILDREN --> PARENTS Complement MOBILITY --> SOCIAL MOBILITY Excluded meaning Guides to application The most common type of guide to applying terms in a thesaurus is the 'scope note'. A scope note is normally preceded by the notation "SN". A scope note may be a definition; for example, SPACE ERROR SN ~ TENDENCY TO BE BIASED BY THE SPATIAL POSITION OF ~ STIMULI IN RELATION TO THE OBSERVER Some scope notes refer to other terms; for example, LICENSING SN ~ EXCLUDES ASPECTS COVERED BY THE TERMS 'SCHOOL ~ ACCREDITATION' AND 'TEACHER ACCREDITATION' It is strongly suggested you read "Thesaurus Constuction and Format" pp. xxi - xxv in the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors (26958 00 990).