Despite early claims to the contrary, thesauri continue to find use as access tools for information in the full-text environment. Their mode of use is changing, but this change actually represents an expansion rather than a contraction of their utility. Thesauri and similar vocabulary tools can complement full-text access by aiding users in focusing their searches, by supplementing the linguistic analysis of the text search engine, and even by serving as one of the tools used by the linguistic engine for its analysis. While human indexing continues to be used for many databases, the trend is to increase the use of machine aids for this purpose. All machine-aided indexing (MAI) systems rely on thesauri as the basis for term selection. In the twenty-first century, the balance of effort between human and machine will change at both input and output, but thesauri will continue to play an important role for the foreseeable future.
Publisher
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Visualizing subject access for 21st century information resources [papers presented at the 1997 Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, March 2-4, 1997 Urbana-Champaign]
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
