Post on 23-Dec-2015
EuroVoc, Eurlex, EU Bookshop
Danica Maleková,Publications Office
Danica.malekova@publications.europa.eu
STS Bratislava, 22 October 2010
2 2
Contents
The role of Publications Office with regard to terminology work Information retrieval What is a controlled vocabulary
Different types of vocabularies Understand a thesaurus (in general) and EuroVoc
Structure, components, relations, EuroVoc
Coverage, limitations, maintenance, use Eurlex EU Bookshop Questions & Answers
3
The role of Publications Office with regard to terminology work
Publications Office manages:
Eurlex – electronic access to EU law http://eur-lex.europa.eu
EU Bookshop – electronic access to EU general, scientific and legal publications including archives http://bookshop.europa.eu
EuroVoc – a controlled vocabulary tool http://eurovoc.europa.eu
Interinstitutional Style Guide http://publications.europa.eu/code
4
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Content indexation Describes the concepts represented in a
document Indexers assign indexing terms (descriptors,
preferred terms) to the document Identify the concept to retrieve the most relevant
information
5
Search results - Principles
Relevance Relationship between a document and a request The document is relevant to a topic or replies to
the user request.
Pertinence Relationship between a document and an
information need Relevant and useful for a user Relevant but the user does not find it useful
(language, level of comprehensibility, document type)
Search failure Not relevant results (noise) Non-retrieved results (silence)
6
Why do we need a controlled vocabulary?
A controlled vocabulary is a consistent set of terms/expressions, along with rules of usage to be followed when indexing or searching.
Guide both the indexer and the searcher to select the same term or combination of terms to represent a given subject.
Nature of the indexing language A list of terms acceptable to users Mechanisms for structuring and using those
terms Minimize the ambiguity of isolated terms that
may be out of context
7
Controlled Vocabulary – Thesauri examples
Multi-domains: Eurovoc Eclas (EC Library) Unesco, UNBIB (United Nations)
Specialized : Cedefop (Vocational Training) Gemet (EEA - environment) Agrovoc (FAO - agriculture) EINIRAS (International affairs)
9
Thesaurus - Principles
A controlled vocabulary In which concepts are represented
Formally organized by relationships between concepts Concepts are made explicit and unambiguous Limited to one meaning
Preferred terms (PT) Descriptors Indexing terms
Non Preferred terms (NPT) Non descriptors Never used for indexing Lead-in entries for term equivalents (synonyms, quasi-
synonyms) to the Preferred Terms
10
EuroVoc - Categories
Microthesauri
21 domains2-digit notation + heading
127 microthesauri4-digit notation + heading
Not used for indexing
11
Microthesaurus (MT)
RELATIONS
CONCEPTS TOP
TERM
TOP TERM
TOP TERM
NARROWER – SPECIFIC TERMS (NT)
LEVELS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
EuroVoc - Microthesaurus – View the hierarchy
BROADER – GENERIC TERMS (BT)
LEVELS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
15
EuroVoc - Coverage
General and multidisciplinary 21 fields 127 microthesaurus
Set of 6797 indexing terms (concepts)
Built-up for EU institutions and national parliaments
Covers both Community and national point of view, with emphasis on parliamentary activities
16
EuroVoc - Multilingual content
Multilingual controlled vocabulary 22 official languages
Irish not available
2 other languages: Croatian and Serbian
Links to Eurovoc “hosted” versions A regional language (Basque) The Russian version (Douma web site)
Exact equivalence between indexing terms (Preferred Terms)
18
EuroVoc – Permuted entries
One entry on each significant word of an expressionregion dependent on fishing
Fishing, region dependent onperipheral region
Region, periperalCommunity regional policy
regional policy, Communityregional disparity
disparity, regionalRegionalstatistik (DE)
statistik, Regional~
No stop words EN: and, the, a, or, … DE: für, an, von, vom, der, die, das, ein, … FR: à, le, la, les, et, pour, vers, …
19
EuroVoc – Maintenance
1 Maintenance Team (Publications Office) EuroVoc maintenance Coordinate the work of the Maintenance
Committee Responsible for IT developments
• Thesaurus Management System• Website
Manage translation of terms Help-Desk
20
EuroVoc - Maintenance
2 inter-institutional Committees
The Maintenance Committee Examines and votes on the proposals for
updating Eurovoc Decides on the amendments to be made Meet twice a year – Chair by the Publications
Office.The Steering Committee
Supervises the EuroVoc projects (objectives, priorities, resources and budgetary issues)
Officially adopts each new version Chair by a representative of an EU institution.