Two Minute Tutorials (or less)
Working with Controlled Vocabulary
People have gotten used to working with full-text tools such as Google and Yahoo, but before them, everybody had no choice but to work with CATALOGS. Catalogs work differently from full-text tools and you can do some powerful searches with them that you can’t do in Google and Yahoo. This is done through the use of CONTROLLED VOCABULARY But you need to know how to use them. This tutorial will help you do this.
Use Catalogs that use controlled vocabulary assign a single form of name to the concept, be it a name, title or subject. Then, any records made must use that form. This is how it is controlled. For Tolstoy: Tolstoj, Lav Nikolajević Tolstoi, L. M. To-erh-ssu-tai Tuo’ersitai
Tolstoy, Léon Tolstoj, Lev Nikolajević Tolsztoj, Lev Tolstoi, Lyof N.
Controlled Vocabulary: Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910 With World War I Controlled Vocabulary: World War, 1914-1918.
Using these terms in catalogs will help you find these forms and make a correct and complete search.
FINDING CONTROLLED VOCABULARY Find controlled vocabulary in special lists available online. For the AUR Library Catalog, use the Library of Congress Authority File. You can search it using the Extend Search function of the catalog. Select Synonyms/Other Tools.
FINDING CONTROLLED VOCABULARY Select Library of Congress Subject Headings You can also search in direct order “Browse Heading” or try other databases. Look for “Tolstoi, Leo” in the list.
FINDING CONTROLLED VOCABULARY Here, we find that the CONTROLLED VOCABULARY for Leo Tolstoi is actually: Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910. This is the form used in the AUR Library catalog, along with most other English-language library catalogs. If you click on this link, you will see many ways that it is used.
FINDING CONTROLLED VOCABULARY Here is the example for World War I. Search “wwi” in the catalog. Extend it and get this screen that has a slightly different form again. Click on the link.
FINDING CONTROLLED VOCABULARY And we discover that the CONTROLLED VOCABULARY for WWI is: World War, 1914-1918. If you click on this link, you will see many ways that it is used.
There are many related terms and notes to help explain how the terms are used.
1. References and notes attached to the term
2. Display of references
3. Display of scope note
See how this works for the search of fascism.
FINDING CONTROLLED VOCABULARY The Controlled Vocabulary in the AUR Library Catalog can be found and searched under the subjects, names, and sometimes the titles.
Controlled Vocabulary
FINDING CONTROLLED VOCABULARY In other library catalogs, it may display and be labelled differently. This is how the controlled vocabulary looks in WorldCat.
Controlled Vocabulary
THERE IS MORE THAN ONE CONTROLLED VOCABULARY Different databases and catalogs may use their own controlled vocabularies. There can also be specialized vocabularies for individual fields, e.g. agriculture, computer science, and so on. They can be called thesauri, ontologies, descriptors, or something else. Still, they all work basically the same.
Different languages have different forms. The VIAF, or Virtual International Authority File, provides different authorized forms used in several national catalogs, including the major English, French, German, Swedish, Czech, and Hebrew forms, but there are others as well, including Italian which is especially important for us. By searching the VIAF for a name, you can find out what form you should use in an Italian catalog! But it’s unclear how complete the file is.
The default search is simple keyword, for a more specific search, click on Exact Form
For the Italian form, choose the one with the Italian flag. You can then search this form in the database group Roman libraries. NOTE: DO NOT INCLUDE the dates in the search since it will not work.
There is a lot more to working with CONTROLLED VOCABULARY. This is just a basic overview. For additional information, and how it is used in different databases, see: Traditional Bibliographic Tools in the workshop Academic Skills for Scholarly Success in the AUR Library Information Wiki.
Two Minute Tutorials (or less)
Working with Controlled Vocabulary Go to: List of Two-Minute Tutorials