The Contemporary Thesaurus of Search Terms and Synonyms: A Guide for Natural Language Computer Searching

Citation

Smith, A.G. (2000), "The Contemporary Thesaurus of Search Terms and Synonyms: A Guide for Natural Language Computer Searching", Online Information Review, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 454-455. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2000.24.6.454.1

A simple truth that many novice searchers find hard to grasp is that computerised retrieval systems search for words, not concepts. The key to successful searching is mastering the vagaries of language: anticipating the range of terms that authors and indexers may have used to describe the concepts sought. One way of mapping concepts to the terms used to represent them is an information retrieval thesaurus. Normally a thesaurus is designed as a tool for indexers, but Contemporary Thesaurus of Search Terms and Synonyms is designed as a tool for searchers; suggesting alternative terms for searching.

The thesaurus is an update and expansion of Knapp’s 1993 Contemporary Thesaurus of Social Science Terms and Synonyms, including expanded coverage of business and the humanities as well as the original coverage of the social sciences. It is designed as an aid to searching of online databases – CD‐ROMs as well as the Internet.

The wide range of subject areas covered include: social sciences, education, women’s issues, the environment, literature, the arts, medicine, history, linguistics, business, and economics. There are 20,000 words (9,000 more than in the previous edition) listed under 8,500 concept headings. The stated aim of the Thesaurus is to only cover general aspects of fields with specialised terminology, and does not include unique terms for which there are no synonyms, e.g. “econometrics”. There seem to be few acronyms listed as alternative terms.

Entries are organised by concepts (an example follows). Each concept entry includes a group of words, including some variant endings, under the common name for a concept. “See” and “See also” directions are used:

Election Law. Election law(s). Choose from: election(s), voting right(s), vote, electoral, ballot(s) with: law(s), constitution(ality), statute(s). Consider also: Elections Act. Voting Rights Act. See also: Ballots; Campaign Finance reform; Elections; Laws; Voting.

There is no overall alphabetic index of words, or a hierarchical index. These could be useful adjuncts (for instance to find “Maori” under “Oceania” rather than “Pacific” where I looked for the term first), but these would obviously increase the bulk of the thesaurus considerably. The lack of the more conventional broader term (BT)/narrower term (NT)/related term (RT) structure might seem a throwback, but is probably appropriate in a tool intended for end users.

As well as the main thesaurus, there are brief sections on computer searching, natural language searching (with useful advice on broadening and narrowing searches), putting searches in context (with hints on defining broad subject areas – a useful technique in the social sciences). Although the computer searching section gives good advice for searching conventional online and CD‐ROM databases that rely on Boolean operators, there are only brief allusions to the techniques required for using the relevance ranked search engines that are commonly found on the Internet. There are sample entries and “how to use” information inside the covers of the volume. The tool is probably best provided as a print volume, to consult at a terminal, but it would be interesting to speculate on how it would work in digital form, e.g. as a CD‐ROM.

Despite the all‐encompassing title, there is no consistent coverage of the pure sciences and technology: although medicine is mentioned in the scope statement, there is no entry covering “CAT scans” or “NMR”, although there are a range of terms for “genetic engineering”. The coverage of business and management is patchy – there are no entries for “business process re‐engineering (BPR)” or “change management”. “Trade marks” are not found with other “intellectual property” terms under “intangible property”. Naturally, it is difficult to keep a tool like this up to date – “Electronic mail” refers to “Junk e‐mail” but not to “Spam”.

Although there is a brief appendix on differences between UK and US spelling, the terminology is US‐focused. Alternative spellings (e.g. “labor”/“labour”) are not provided in the body of the thesaurus, so US students attempting to find the “color of the UK Labor Party’s flag” might not be assisted in their quest. There is no mention of “Occupational overuse syndrome” (commonly used in Australasia) under “repetitive motion disorders” and no prompt under “private schools” to consider the UK usage of “public schools”. Terms suggested for roads include “freeways”, but not “motorways”; however, “automobiles” includes “motor cars” and “lorries”.

Terms include geographic regions, though again this bears a US perspective – in the South Pacific a searcher for “Cook Islands” would not be directed to “Raratonga”.

However, in any tool like this, it is easy to find examples where the coverage could be improved. In meeting its core objectives, the Thesaurus provides a useful adjunct to searching. In fact the main barrier to compiling a useful set of search terms seems to be distraction of interesting terms that appear on every page – a search for “Charitable Trusts” can easily be diverted into exploring the potential of “Chattering classes” or “Cherry picking”!Any reference department or information centre, particularly those dealing with queries in the social sciences, will find The Contemporary Thesaurus of Search Terms and Synonyms a valuable resource and search aid.