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Edward Swanson Essential Thesaurus Construction. By Vanda Broughton. London: Facet Pub., 2006. 296p. $65 paper (ISBN 978-185604-656-0/1-85604-565-X).
The Thesaurus: Review, Renaissance, and Revision. Eds. Sandra K. Roe and Alan R. Thomas. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Infor. Pr, 2004. 209p. $39.95 cloth (ISBN 078901978-7); $19.95 paper (IBSN 07890-1979-5). Published simultaneously as Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 37, nos. 3/4.
As stated in the subtitle of Sandra Roe and Alan Thomas's collection of essays, the thesaurus may indeed be experiencing a renaissance in our digital era. Many information professionals continue to insist that access to electronic full-text is the only important precondition for resource discovery on the Web. At the same time, others, including professionals outside librarianship proper, have come to understand that the mediation provided by expertly developed and maintained controlled vocabularies is a basic requirement for service to populations of all sorts (including impatient undergraduates), and not an unwarranted interference with the end-user's autonomy. The two volumes under review, together, address this topic in complementary fashion.
Vanda Broughton, lecturer in library and information studies at the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, has written a valuable manual for students and practitioners. Essential Thesaurus Construction is concerned with both the principles and practice of thesaurus construction, "with rather more emphasis than is usual on the latter" (1). She has at the same time provided a practical and detailed introduction to taxonomy construction, outlining the basic methods for building a subject vocabulary. This is useful not only for the student, but also for the information professional who must create a thesaurus in-house.
Broughton's book, while emphasizing practical application in real-world situations, does not slight theoretical issues. Instead, chapters with either theoretical or practical emphases are integrated in a single logical sequence. The opening chapters discuss fundamentals, such as the nature of a thesaurus and how it is distinguished from other subject access tools, uses of thesauri and their advantages, types of thesauri, and the different displays typically provided. Practical steps are then described, beginning with five chapters on aspects of vocabulary selection and simple vocabulary control, a process that results in the needed raw material from which a thesaurus is constructed. Chapters on thesaural relationships, facets and arrays, hierarchies, and the complex issues surrounding compound...