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Zthes. Z39.50 Profile for Thesaurus navigation Sebastian Hammer. Why?. Z39.50 is good at ”straight” searching - type in your query and cross your fingers. Z39.50 SCAN offers browsing of a flat list of possible terms - a window into the index. But...
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Zthes Z39.50 Profile for Thesaurus navigation Sebastian Hammer
Why? • Z39.50 is good at ”straight” searching - type in your query and cross your fingers. • Z39.50 SCAN offers browsing of a flat list of possible terms - a window into the index. But... • Users are accustomed to ”browsing” hierarchical structures
What is a thesaurus? • ISO2788 - a general reference model for thesauri • A thesaurus is a collection of interrelated terms: • Narrower (more specific) Term • Broader (more general) Term • Related Term • Synonyms (Use-that-term-instead)
Zthes Profile • Zthes allows a Z39.50 client to navigate through a thesaurus structure ”hosted” on a remote server. • Uses existing protocol facilities (search, retrieval). • Does require GRS-1 and multiple attribute set support.
Zthes Database Model • All records may contain • The term itself (eg. ”aircraft”) • A qualifier (eg. ”military”) • Scope Note (prose text about term usage) • Term ID • Admin info • Term type • Relations
Records - term types • Term Type - the type of record • A record may represent • a preferred (index) term • a non-preferred term (a synonym for something else) • A node label
Records - relations • Relations consist of • The term in question (plus qualifter) • The term ID (unique in database) • The type of the term • The type of relationship • The language of the other term • Possibly the address of a different Z39.50/Zthes target/db
How is it used? • A ”well-known search” is used to get to the ”beginning” of the thesaurus • Alternative: A search for (parts of) a term name gets back one or more matches • Client looks at term relations to navigate thesaurus • Search for term-id to get new terms • Similar to ”Hyper-link” searching.
Status • Third public draft for discussion and testing • The Editor: Mike Taylor - mike@tecc.co.uk • The Z39.50 Maintenance agency profile page