More 2003 IA Summit - Trip Reports
Stacy Surla shares her thoughts on the IA Summit. Comment to ssurla@aspensys.com.

Guidelines and Standards for Taxonomies and Other IA Controlled Vocabularies
Amy Warner, Lexonomy.com

Controlled vocabularies are essential to the management of large collections. This was formally recognized in the U.S. in 1885 with the release of the first Library of Congress subject headings. In more modern times, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) published a standard for thesaurus development in 1974 (ANSI Z39.19). This remains the leading national standard for thesaurus construction and is the de facto international standard. It is also a standard used in the contruction of taxonomies and other controlled vocabularies for websites.

However, guidelines developed for print media do not meet all the requirements for electronic media. Nearly 30 years old, Z39.19 focuses on requirements for building search thesauri and emphasizes print media. It does not refer to users nor reflect the electronic information environment.

Revision of NISO Z39.19

Amy Warner, who is the chief editor of the revision of Z39.19, described the changes that will be reflected in the revised standard. The new standard will not assume prior familiarity with the underlying concepts. It will explain the ideas presented so that they will be understandable to implementers without formal training in librarianship or information science. It will be relevant to electronic as well as printed versions of controlled vocabularies used for browsing and searching. The standard will address best practices for constructing monolingual, stand-alone controlled vocabularies. It will contain sections on building taxonomies, pick lists, labeling schemes, and other forms of IA controlled vocabularies.