|
Track: Federal Systems
Pat Hornfell
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
1208 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA 94702
Telephone: 510-524-3717
Fax: c/o 916-979-2505
E-mail: phfell@netcom.com
David Hansen
Construction of a Theme Keyword Thesaurus for Indexing, Search and Retrieval across Networks
The efficient management, searching, and retrieval of geospatial information are supported by indexing thematic content as well as geographic location and extent of data. The FGDC Content Standards for Geospatial Metadata requires that data providers use theme keyword indexing derived from an associated thesaurus. Use of thesauri assists data producers and managers to achieve some consistency in selecting and assigning indexing terms to related data sets. The consistency of thesaurus-assisted indexing provides structure and direction for data searching and retrieval, which are enhanced by the transparency of a browsable thesaurus. This application began with the American Geographical Society Map Catalog subject entries and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Thesaurus of Water Resource Terms. The theme Keyword Thesaurus for Geospatial Data is presented in association with geospatial metadata and bibliographic description of GIS data and other information in a variety of formats available from the U.S.B.R. Mid
Pacific Region server. Sources for terms included in the thesaurus are identified. URLs and links are provided when possible. Intended to be flexible and hospitable, the thesaurus may be extended by key terms from the thesauri (glossaries, definitions of terms, etc.) of the disciplines involved in the development of datasets and metadata at U.S.B.R. The capture of a theme keyword list for digital or nondigital data is part of the preliminary documentation. Capture of keywords provides a subset of the thesaurus, which becomes the index to available information. Searches of this index link the user directly to brief descriptions. At any time, the theme keyword list for a GIS dataset may be included as part of fully compliant metadata documentation. Assignment of keywords may be done in ArcView, ArcInfo, or via World Wide Web browsers such as Netscape or Mosaic. Software: Implementation of the theme keyword thesaurus has been done in HTML, Avenue scripts, and ARC Macro Language (AML).
|
|
