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Information Science Glossary
The big four:
taxonomy
A grouping of terms representing topics or subject categories. A taxonomy
is typically structured so that its terms exhibit hierarchical
relationships to one another, between broader and narrower concepts. Taxonomy structure is discussed in the NISO Z39.19 (2005) standard.
thesaurus
A thesaurus puts terms into context by defining a variety of relationships among the thesaurus terms. As with most taxonomies, thesauri define broader and narrower term relationships (hierarchical relationships). In addition, they specify related terms (associative relationships) that allow
the user to identify conceptual relationships between terms in different term groupings. One more type of term relationship in thesauri is the synonym relationship or equivalence relationship, which establishes preferred and non-preferred terms. Scope notes can be attached to any term to clarify the specific meaning of the term within the thesaurus. These elements – the hierarchical, associative, and equivalence
relationships and scope notes – work together to enrich a thesaurus and make it far more than a simple word list.
Thesaurus structure is dictated by national and international standards,
such as ANSI/NISO Z39.19 and ISO 2788.
classification
Classification is the backbone of organizing fields of knowledge and
indexing. Its physical counterpart is the placing of a book or journal in a single spot on
a library shelf. In a computer environment, a single object can be
classified in several locations with a polyhierarchical system. At
the core of classification is content analysis.
ontology
Ontology is a form of classification that goes beyond the three types of term relationships described above, to indicate specific functional relationships among terms. Whereas in a taxonomy terms may be
classified together as “fruit”, in an ontology the conceptual
relationship may define a fruit term in different contexts such as “fruit which is used in pies”; the ontological relationship might be that the item represented by term A is "used in" the item represented by term B. Ontological relationships are inherently self-describing.
Ontologies are the backbone of the semantic web, as they provide
multiple links to data and therefore can support search and insightful
navigation.
semantics
The study of meaning in language.
Thesaurus terms:
bound term
A term consisting of a compound term or phrase that indicates a single concept. (The phrase was originated by Mortimer Taube in his Studies in Coordinate Indexing, vol. 1, 1953, p. 43) Same as compound term. (from the ANSI/NISO Z39.19 standard)
broader term
A term to which another term or multiple terms are subordinate in a hierarchy. The relationship indicator for this type of term is BT. (from the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005)
candidate term
A word or phrase considered for admission into a controlled vocabulary because of its potential usefulness as a term. See also provisional term. (from the ANSI/NISO Z39.19 standard)
compound term
A term consisting of more than one word or a phrase that represents a single concept. Same as bound term. (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
content object
An entity that contains data/information. A content object may itself be made up of content objects. For example, a journal is a content object made up of individual journal articles, which can each be a content object. The text, figures, and photographs included in a journal article can also be separate content objects. Metadata may be a content object. (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
controlled vocabulary
A subset of the lexicon of
a natural language. A list of preferred and
non-preferred terms produced by the process of
vocabulary control. Types of controlled vocabulary include subject heading lists and thesauri. (from the ANSI/NISO Z39.19 standard)
descriptor
A term
chosen as the preferred expression of a concept in a
thesaurus. (from the ANSI/NISO Z39.19 standard)
equivalency
The semantic relationship between two or more terms from which one is chosen as the preferred term and the others as non-preferred terms or variants to represent a concept in a
thesaurus. Equivalency includes synonyms (e.g. UN and United Nations), lexical variants (e.g. pediatrics and paediatrics), and near-synonyms (e.g. sea water and salt water). (from the ANSI/NISO Z39.19 standard)
free text
Antonym of controlled vocabulary. Natural language terms appearing in content objects, which may complement terms in an information storage and retrieval system. In free text searching, terms may also be retrieved. Compare keyword. (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
keyword
A word occurring in the natural language of a document that is considered significant for indexing and retrieval. Compare free text. (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
document
Any item, printed or otherwise, that is amenable to cataloging and indexing. The term applies not only to written and printed materials in paper or microform versions, but also to non-print media (e.g. machine-readable records, transparencies, audiotapes, videotapes) and, by extension, to three-dimensional objects or realia (e.g. museum objects and specimens). Compare content object. (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
metasearching
The simultaneous searching across multiple databases, sources, platforms, and protocols. Also known as broadcast searching, cross-database searching, federated searching, or parallel searching.(from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
narrower term
A term that is subordinate to another term or to multiple terms in a hierarchy. The relationship indicator for this type of term is NT (from the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 standard)
non-preferred term
A synonym or quasi-synonym of a preferred term, non-descriptor. Also known as an entry term, one that is linked to a preferred term with "USE". For example, swine: USE pigs
preferred term
A term used consistently to index a concept. Also known as subject term, index term, main term.
One of two or more synonyms or lexical variants selected as a descriptor (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
Linked to non-preferred terms with "Used For". For example, pigs: Used For Swine
provisional term
A term with temporary status in a controlled vocabulary. It often represents a new concept in a field in which the terminology has not yet been standardized. See also candidate term. (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
related term
One of two preferred terms closely associated even though they may be distant from each other in the hierarchy.
top term
A term representing the broadest conceptual category, one which has no broader term. The relationship indicator for this type of term is TT
SKOS
- SKOS — Simple Knowledge Organization System — provides a model for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, folksonomies, and other types of controlled vocabulary. As an application of the Resource Description Framework (RDF) SKOS allows concepts to be documented, linked and merged with other data, while still being composed, integrated and published on the World Wide Web. (from the SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization Primer)
-
variant
- a term similar in meaning to a preferred term in a controlled vocabulary which can be regarded as a synonym, or entry term, for indexing, a "lexical variant" of a preferred term. May represent a variation in the spelling of a preferred term. See also non-preferred term.
-
Machine Aided Indexing™ terms:
rule
In automated indexing, the condition or set of conditions causing one or more terms to be suggested (or ignored) for indexing, based on the wording in the text being indexed. With appropriate software, rules can be created and refined to "teach" the automated system to bring up terms by context. For example, an indexer can scan an article about the Chicago Bears and, drawing on its knowledge base, locate terms related to the football team, but not suggest zoological terms pertaining to wild bears.
term
One or more words designating a concept. See also compound term; descriptor; entry term. (from the Z39.19 NISO standard)
XML terms :
element
An element consists of an opening tag, its attributes, any content, and a closing tag. (e.g. <title lang="En">XML Today</title>)
(from No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP by Thomas Myer)
tag
A tag—either opening or closing—is used to mark the start or end of an element and is enclosed in triangular brackets (< >)
(from No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP by Thomas Myer)
attributes
Attributes provide additional information about elements. Attributes appear within tags and must be quoted. (from W3 Schools)
see also IBM Developer Works article When to use elements versus attributes
entities
In general, entities allow you to assign a name to some content and use that name to refer to that content. Five internal entities are predefined in XML - the ampersand, the lesser than and greater than symbols, the apostrophe and the quote (& < > ' "). Entities can describe characters such as for a space or can stand for text or an image that is used often, working like a "macro". External entities offer a mechanism for dividing a document up into logical
chunks. Entities other than the 5 predefined ones must be declared before they can be used, either in the DTD or in the document itself. An internal entity declaration has the following form:
<!ENTITY entityname "replacement text">
(from XML Entities and their applications by Pankay Kamthan and from Entities: What are they good for by Norman Walsh)
well-formed XML
A well-formed XML document follows these rules:
- An XML document must contain a single root element that contains all other elements.
- All elements must be properly nested.
- All elements must be closed either with a closing tag or with a “self-closing” empty-element tag (i.e. < tag /> ).
- All attribute values must be quoted.
(from No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP by Thomas Myer)
valid XML
A valid XML document is both well-formed and follows all the rules set down
in that document's DTD (document type definition). A valid document, then,
is nothing more than a well-formed document that adheres to its DTD.
(from No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP by Thomas Myer)
DTD
A Document Type Definition (DTD) defines the legal building blocks of an XML document. It defines the document structure with a list of legal elements and attributes. A DTD can be declared inline inside an XML document, or as an external reference.
.
(from WC Schools)
Web services
Web Services make it possible for diverse applications to discover each other and exchange data seamlessly via the Internet. For instance, programs written in Java and running on Solaris can find and call code written in C# that run on Windows XP, or programs written in Perl that run on Linux, without any concern about the details of how that service is implemented. A common set of Web Services is at the core of Microsoft's new .NET strategy, Sun Microsystems's Sun One Platform, and the W3C's XML Protocol Activity Group.
(from
Web Services Essentials: Distributed Applications with XML-RPC, SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL By Ethan Cerami)
See also:
Hi-tech crime: A glossary, from BBC News
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