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Flower garden quilt by Mealii Kalama of Hawaii. Cotton applique, 89" x 81", ca. 1988. Kalama has received
a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Photograph by Dudley Smith, courtesy of the Denver
Museum of Natural History. From the Masters of Traditional Arts DVD-ROM, produced by Alan Govenar and published by ABC-CLIO. |
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Construction and Maintenance of the Ethnographic ThesaurusConstruction of the Ethnographic ThesaurusMaintenance of the Ethnographic Thesaurus The Ethnographic Thesaurus conforms to the 2006 revision of the American National Standard produced by the National Information Standards Organization for controlled vocabularies, commonly referred to as the ANSI/NISO Z39.19 standard. The ANSI/NISO standard is the primary source for guidance in the construction of controlled vocabularies and thesauri. Construction of the Ethnographic ThesaurusThe Ethnographic Thesaurus is an archival tool and a user resource of ethnographic subject terms that have been compiled by the Ethnographic Thesaurus team. It is not an all-inclusive resource, but rather will grow as new terms are added to it, both as a result of changes made by the Ethnographic Thesaurus maintenance team and input from users. The Ethnographic Thesaurus was developed using the internationally recognized process of facet analysis typically used in thesaurus construction. In a two-stage process, facet analysis involves the identification of clusters of raw subject terms from a chosen field of study and the subsequent organization of these terms into clusters of terms, referred to as facets or subject categories. In the early stages of the Ethnographic Thesaurus, raw vocabulary was drawn from a substantial sample of ethnographic source materials (documents, existing index vocabularies, expert knowledge, academic papers, etc.) The raw vocabulary was then collected into draft sets or clusters of terms, based on their semantic or functional affinity. As many raw terms as possible were preliminarily situated in these clusters. As an example, because bagpipes, music stands, and rhythm all share characteristics having to do with Music, they were placed in the category of Music. Likewise, jokes, riddles, and tall tales found a place in Verbal Arts and Literature. Once drafts of the subject categories were completed, they were posted on the Ethnographic Thesaurus website for review by experts in the field, including members of the Ethnographic Thesaurus Advisory Board. Currently, the Ethnographic Thesaurus contains nearly 9000 preferred terms. Top of pageMaintenance of the Ethnographic ThesaurusA thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary based on natural language, which needs to reflect current concepts and usage, while at the same time providing a standard and useful structure. In order to remain vital in the future, the Ethnographic Thesaurus will be maintained to allow for existing thesaurus terms to be amended and for new terms to be added. Changes will be overseen by an editorial committee, which includes members of the Ethnographic Thesaurus team and Advisory Board. Top of page
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