Create a subject thesaurus record
These instructions explain how to create a new record in the Zine Subject Thesaurus. You might do this if you think of a new term to add to the Thesaurus or you want to add a term that was suggested by a user.
You can't really find a link to create a new subject term in the Zine Thesaurus through the general menu structure or from the Zine Thesaurus itself. Instead you can open this link this link or open the link called "Add Term" that is in the special Thesaurus Menu on the bottom right of the website that only Thesaurus Editors can see.
Here are some helpful guidelines on selecting new subject terms and the in-progress Thesaurus Policies.
Subject term fields
There are a number of fields that you can fill in, but only Name is required. Most of the time you can add Related Terms and Synonyms. Sometimes you might add Broader Terms, Narrower Terms, and a Scope Note.
The additional terms can help users discover other similar words, topics, and content in the Thesaurus and Anchor Archive zine catalogue. They can also give users a better understanding of what the term means and how it is used.
Name:
Enter the preferred term in the Name field. See these guidelines on selecting new subject terms.
Broader Term:
A broader term is a parent term or a broader category that the term is part of.
Some subject thesauri are completely hierarchical and every term must have a broader term, other than the most top level terms. The Zine Subject Thesaurus, on the other hand, is not very hierarchical and only some terms have broader terms. Therefore, you should only assign a broader term if there is an obvious parent-child relationship between the two terms.
For example:
- "surrealist art" has the broader term "art" and the related term "surrealism"
- "bands" is not a broader term of "musicians" because even though musicians are often in bands, they are not always in bands
Only one Broader Term can be selected from existing subject terms. If you want to add a Broader Term that is not already a subject term, you will have to create a new term record for it first.
Narrower Terms:
Narrower terms are child terms or a more specific parts of the preferred term. Because the Zine Thesaurus is not very hierarchical, as explained above, many terms do not have narrower terms and narrower terms should only be assigned if there is an obvious parent-child relationship between the terms. For example: "animals" has the narrower terms "llamas" and "cows."
Multiple narrower terms can be added to a record and they must be selected from existing terms in the Thesaurus. If you want to use a term not already in the Thesaurus, you will have to create a new term record for it first.
Related Terms:
Related terms are terms related in meaning or terms that have a relationship. They might share the same broader term or they might not.
Related terms are the most common relationships between terms in the Zine Thesaurus and most term records have related terms.
For example, "comics" and "zines" are related terms.
Multiple related terms can be added and they must be selected from existing terms in the Thesaurus. If you want to use a term not already in the Thesaurus, you will have to create a new term record for it first.
Synonyms:
Synonyms can also be called "used for" terms or "non-preferred" terms. They are terms that mean the same thing as the preferred term and are used to direct cataloguers and library users to the preferred term in the Thesaurus.
For example, "bikes" is a synonym of "bicycles."
Multiple synonyms can be added to a term. In fact, you should try to think of as many synonyms as you can that people might search for instead of the preferred term.
When a synonym is added to a record, it is not added to the Thesaurus per se, so you can add synonyms directly to the record without them already existing in the Thesaurus or other term records.
Scope note:
The Scope Note explains how the term should be used in the Thesaurus, perhaps in relation to other terms, and may include a definition of the term.
You only need to enter a scope note if the term's use or meaning is not clear.
Description:
This field can be used as a History field to indicate how the term's use in the Thesaurus has changed over time. Usually you will not fill it in as you're creating a new record.
Check older thesaurus and other resources
See if the term is in the older thesaurus and has relationships that you can copy to the new thesaurus. The PDF file of the old thesaurus is here.
You can also check the resources on this page.