05.10 Adding to the Thesaurus

The Thesaurus is a list of Subject Headings you choose from to assign to resources.

The list is basically moderated by SCIS (although over the years your list may have… ummmm… deviated a little from the true list, both from necessity and lack of understanding)

So, you can:

Add Valid Subject Headings
Add Non-Valid Subject Headings (or See References) that refer a researcher from a dodgy term to a term deemed acceptable to the guardians of all that is stored and cataloguable…

A few things to note:

Base Control Numbers

When a new subject heading is adopted by SCIS it is called a Base heading.
Other subjects can be formed using a Base heading by adding a “subdivision” (eg Base Heading – Australia).
If you are adding a Base heading then the defualt control number is ok (but it would be better to lookup the SCIS database and find out what the real base control number is (if your new subject does not already exist in the SCIS list then we don’t encourage you to add it (unless you are running a specialist collection that SCIS is not really good for… schools should stick to SCIS as a validation list).
If you are adding a new subject heading that is a Subdivision of a Base heading then you should use the button to find the Base heading control number to use.
This sounds like a whole lot of hoopla but when a round of political correctness changes are released by SCIS you’ll be very glad you stuck to the rules! (Or you’ll pretend you don’t know SCIS wants you to adjust your database!).

Tags

Used to group subject headings into logical areas… must be useful for something!

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05.10.01 Example 1… adding a “Valid” Subject Heading

Adding “Durong”… a Queensland town:

Go into Data Entry.
Click on Thesaurus tab.
Use the Find box and type in the first few letters of Durong (eg. dur) (this is just to check the subject does not already exist).
When not found, use the find box to lookup another town in Queensland (eg Brisbane… so type in brisb and press enter).
Double click on Brisbane (Qld) to get to Thes Detail tab.
Click on Record on the bar menu and click Copy Fields (or press Ctrl-M shortcut!). (This copies all the information from the Brisbane details to memory)
Now click the + button up the top to add a new record (or press F2).
Press F4 to paste the old subject into the Subject Heading field then highlight the word Brisbane using the mouse and overtype it with the word Durong (This just helps to keep the same format).
Press Tab to move to Approx Dewey No. field and press F4 again to call up the Dewey info from the old record (check it’s ok using the button).
Press tab to get to the Base Control number… as mentioned in the overview, this is SCIS information basically. If you are adding a Subdivision of an existing subject then use the button to lookup the control number of the base heading (ie. The part before the – eg. Dogs bit from Dogs – Australia).
The Tag field is another SCIS device…. used to group types of headings. Again use the button to become enlightened on the options.
Entry Date is set at today.
Now move to the Code 1 field and press F4 again (to call up the Code 1 from the original heading) and see if the explanation to the right of the field is an appropriate cross-referencing topic area… if so, cool. If not use the button to find a better one.
- Actually, it’s probably easier to jump into the Thesaurus tab to lookup similar subject headings and check what codes they have.
- Don’t skimp on the cross-referencing codes. This is the thing that makes the Subject search in the Enquiry module so powerful as a research tool!
- Type in at least one code but see if you can find a few… even if they are a bit left hand side of the groove… after all, it’s about encouraging lateral thinking! Get lateral!
(Move through each code field and press F4 to call up the codes (if they existed) from the old record… make sure you are happy with the cross-reference information and adjust if necessary. The best way to find appropriate cross-referencing is to lookup other similar headings.)
Click the tick button up the top or press F9 to save the new heading.
Your new subject heading in now ready to be assigned to resources!

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05.10.02 Adding a “Non-valid” Subject Heading (See Reference)

It’s good to add See References for commonly used terms that point to SCIS valid terms that are unlikely to be used by students.

Here is an example:-

Adding “Sinking and Floating → Hydrodynamics”

Go into Data Entry.
Click on Thesaurus tab.
Use the Find box and type in the first few letters of Hydrodynamics (eg. hyd).
When Hydrodynamics is found, double click on it to get to Thes Detail tab.
Click on Record on the bar menu and select ‘Add Thes. See Reference’.
A box will pop up prompting what the non-valid heading that will be pointing to the valid heading will be called E.g. ‘Sinking & Floating’.
Click ‘OK’ when you are happy with the See Reference and then select ‘OK’ on the successful message.
To check your See Reference simply click the link that says ‘Has See References’ across the top of the Thesaurus record and box will pop up a list of the See Reference for that heading.
You may also choose to add ‘Floating & Sinking’ → Hydrodynamics.

Tags: add a non-valid subject heading, add invalid subject heading, add see reference, adding an invalid subject heading, adding a see reference, c reference, refer to heading, refer to subject, see reference, valid reference

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05.10 Adding to the Thesaurus