The Web provides an excellent testbed for demonstrating how vocabularies can enhance intellectual access in various applications. This chapter provides links to Examples of Vocabulary Practice, which you may use:

• to help you demonstrate the basic principles of vocabularies to colleagues
• as models for system developers
• to encourage collaborative projects in vocabulary building
• to teach vocabulary practice to students
• to create your own training exercises
• to help persuade decision makers of the value of vocabularies.

NOTE: This chapter refers to several projects that are no longer active or have changed since the time of writing, and links to them have been removed. It will be updated in 2006.

Vocabularies as Search Assistants
Vocabularies in Image Databases
Vocabularies in Library Catalogs
Vocabularies in Archival Description and Cataloging
Vocabularies in Museum Documentation
Vocabularies in Indexes
Vocabulary Browsers
Multilingual Vocabularies

VOCABULARIES AS SEARCH ASSISTANTS

BIRON - Bibliographic Information Retrieval Online

This database of the Economic and Social Research Council Data Archive at Essex University (U.K.) incorporates the HASSET (Humanities and Social Sciences Electronic Thesaurus) into the search interface. When you enter your search term or terms, BIRON tries to match your keywords or descriptive terms and geographical terms, against several thousand terms arranged in associated groups in the HASSET thesaurus. When an exact match is found, you learn how many studies have been assigned the matching terms. At this stage you may elect to see the thesaural entry for the term which may assist you in focusing your search. If no match is found, a list of similarly spelled terms is presented from which you may select a search term. HASSET is also an excellent social science thesaurus apart from its ability to search BIRON.

Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI)

The application of vocabularies as search assistants in cultural heritage databases is a relatively new practice and most of the applications you will see on the Web are in the prototype stage. The theory has long been a research topic in artificial intelligence and information science labs, yet most of the applications have surfaced in scientific databases and commercial search engines. Fortunately, the arts and humanities sector will benefit from recent research initiatives, such as the DLI is developing intelligent search interfaces for digital collections using vocabularies. The discussions in the "Semantic Research" and the "Interspace Prototype" sections of the DLI website are especially relevant.

UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/

The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History developed its prototype in collaboration with Questor Systems, the museum's collection management system vendor. Users can refine searches for museum objects and images by broadening or narrowing their topic. This is accomplished through a hierarchical lexicon that is made available at the time of the query. The search engine automatically includes synonyms and spelling variants in the search.

VOCABULARIES IN IMAGE DATABASES

The Holsinger Studio Digital Portfolio Database
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/rmds/collections/holsinger/

The Holsinger Studio Collection Image Database is a prototype created by the Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library. SGML tags were used to describe a set of photographs depicting 19th -early 20th c. life in Virginia. The catalogers used both AAT and LCSH terms to provide topical access points.

Image Directory

The Image Directory, an online publication of Academic Press, is a resource of information on art images from a network of participating museums, libraries, societies, and other institutions. Several features are available to help image users find the precise information they need, including daily updates and additions of new material, low-resolution images for many entries, and direct links to the AAT and ULAN web browsers. Limited access to the Image Directory is complimentary, but a paid subscription is required to access complete image information.

National Graphic Design Image Database

Developed at the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, a division of the Cooper Union School of Art, the NGDA Image Database is designed to electronically preserve and disseminate material related to the history and theory of graphic design. The database uses the AAT to describe design attributes for posters, advertisements, etc. The software enables students, designers, and artists to access and input images and analysis from web sites worldwide and aims to build a virtual visual encyclopedia through an electronic community of educators. The public access version displays data for all the records, but access to images is currently restricted to select items. Educators interested in accessing the unrestricted version, should contact Lawrence Mirsky, director of The Herb Lubalin Study Center and the NGDA Image Database, at mirsky@cooper.edu.

SlideCat
http://slides-www.ucsc.edu/

The University of California at Santa Cruz SlideCat website includes 224,000 textual slide records and thousands of authority records. The categories can be browsed (including subject, artist, people, site, etc.) or keyword searches can be made. Sources for the authority files include AAT and LCSH, however, they are not cited in the web version. This site also uses the Santa Cruz Classification System.

SPIRO Online Visual Database
http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro/

The University of California at Berkeley Architecture Slide Library's SPIRO Online Visual Database uses a combination of AAT and local terms to describe this teaching collection of architectural slides. The site also includes a reference list of subject terms used in the database.

VOCABULARIES IN LIBRARY CATALOGS

The Getty Research Institute Library Catalog
http://library.getty.edu/

The online catalog for the Research Library of the Getty Research Institute (formerly known as IRIS) displays bibliographic records of over 350,000 book and serial titles, as well as descriptions of approximately 3,000 archival and photograph collections. IRIS uses AAT terms in the form/genre descriptions for the collection. Subject keywords are taken from the Library of Congress Subject Headings.

The National Art Library (London)
http://ipac.nal.vam.ac.uk/

Library staff collaborated with the AAT to create new subject terms in the area of book arts, including bookbinding and genre terminology. The AAT is the primary source of terminology for the NAL and a project to convert older subject headings in the catalog to headings using AAT terms is underway. The NAL catalog can be searched via telnet from their website.

VOCABULARIES IN ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION AND CATALOGING

Duke Papyrus Archive
http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/

This archive based at Duke University provides online access to texts about and images of Ancient Egyptian papyri. Read the online article, "Cataloging the Duke Papyri" first to get an overview of the methodology used to create the database. This site is an excellent example of how data standards work together (e.g., MARC, APPM, AACR2, LCSH and AAT) to facilitate information retrieval in multiple environments (the Web, an OPAC,and an institutional catalog).

VOCABULARIES IN MUSEUM DOCUMENTATION

Mystic Seaport - Museum of America and the Sea
http://www.mysticseaport.org

Mystic Seaport is a good example of an institution-wide effort to integrate information from its library, archival, and museum collections. Mystic Seaport is employing several strategies to accomplish this - in the area of vocabularies, the staff contributes terms to the AAT. These terms (together with local terms) will be used to provide access points into the collections databases.

Categories for the Description of Works of Art

This demonstration of how the Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) can be applied in documentation practice was created by the Getty Information Institute. Note how the AAT, ULAN, TGN, and ICONCLASS are used in multiple categories to describe a work of art.

VOCABULARIES IN INDEXES

Conway Library Index - Architecture

This index to a microfiche collection of a photoarchive for the history of architecture is a publication from Emmett Publishing. The web version allows you to sample the index interface and retrieve up to three results per search. Editor, David Austin, (Art & Architecture Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago) used a maximum of two AAT terms per photograph to help users find object types. The search form also includes a pop-up authority list of AAT terms used to index the photographs. The ULAN was consulted for spellings of names and dates of existence for people. A single version of the spelling of the name was chosen where multiples were found in the list.

Program for Art on Film, Art on Screen Database
http://www.artfilm.org/aosdb.htm

An index to moving image productions on the visual arts. The database uses primarily AAT terminology, with some additions from LCSH. A subscription is required to search the entire database. The project is sponsored by the Pratt Institute School of Information & Library Science.

RomeDAI
http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/archart/resources/RomeDAI/

A guide for the photographs contained at the archives of the Deutsches archäologisches Institute in Rome. A significant part of this guide, created by David Austin (Art & Architecture Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago), is a photo-by-photo database index of the contents of the microfiche publication of the DAI's photographic archive. The index includes the name of an item; a description of the view of an item; the name of a monument; the name of a site; the name of a region; the name of a country; the name of a repository; the repository's designation (inventory number); the name of a creator to whom the object is attributed; term or terms related to the item's classification (from the AAT); term or terms related to the item's iconography (from ICONCLASS); the location of the photo on the microfiche; and a credit for the original photo's source, including a photo or negative number when possible.

VOCABULARY BROWSERS

Vocabulary "browsers" are applications that give users access to the content of a vocabulary in an online environment. Other web resources, such as online catalogs and databases, can take advantage of this by providing users with links to vocabulary browsers to assist in searching. Below are a few examples.

Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/

Maintained by the J. Paul Getty Trust, contains the most up-to date AAT terminology. The ability to search individual words in scope note is an added feature.

CHIN Art & Architecture Thesaurus Browser

This AAT web browser, created by the Canadian Heritage Information Network, is available as part of the Research and Reference Information Resources package - tools for historic, terminology, and documentation research. A free 30-day trial subscription is available or you can view a sample AAT record without a subscription.

ICONCLASS Browser
http://www.iconclass.nl

A tool developed by the ICONCLASS Research & Development Group (IRDG) at the Universities of Utrecht and Leiden. It is intended for those engaged in iconographical research or in the documentation of images, particularly for people working with ICONCLASS in computer projects. ICONCLASS is an iconographic classification system, i.e. a collection of ready-made definitions of objects, persons, events, situations and abstract ideas, that can be the subject of a work of art.

View more vocabulary browsers

RLIN Art & Architecture Thesaurus Browser

An AAT browser is offered by the Research Libraries Group as part of its RLIN database package of authority files. The online AAT candidate term form is also accessible from this site. An RLIN or Zephyr subscription account is required to use the RLIN authority files.

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/

Maintained by the J. Paul Getty Trust, contains the most up-to date TGN information.

Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/ulan/

Maintained by the J. Paul Getty Trust, contains the most up-to-date ULAN information.

MULTILINGUAL VOCABULARIES

CHIN Religious Objects Collections Database
http://daryl.chin.gc.ca:8000/BASIS/acfr/user/www/SAC?SUBACT=Begin+search&F=OB&C=*

The database includes over 300 records of religious objects and images is sponsored by the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Ministére de la Culture de la France. The site currently displays descriptions in both French and English and CHIN is developing a multilingual lexicon that will allow navigation across the collections. A free 30-day trial subscription is available or you can view a sample record without a subscription.

Multilingual Egyptological Thesaurus
http://213.132.220.88/CCER/apps/thesaurus/index.html

This thesaurus has been compiled mainly for the (computerized) documentation and retrieval of museum objects and is a collaborative product of the Computer Working Group of the International Association of Egyptologists (IAE) and the Comité International pour l'Égyptologie (CIPEG) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The browser provides terms in English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, with future plans for Arabic. Note the numerical codes that link the same term in each language.