DESIGN FOR A SUBJECT SEARCH INTERFACE AND ONLINE THESAURUS FOR A VERY LARGE RECORDS MANAGEMENT DATABASE

摘要

A design for a subject search interface and online thesaurus is described which embodies several novel features:rn1. A subject search interface designed to feel simple enough to be used successfully by end users with only a high school education, and which is linked to an online thesaurus in such a way as to allow easy selection of desired terms and automatic creation of Boolean statements.rn2. A novel type of thesaurus designed specifically for the online environment and to be used online in real time by end users with little or no knowledge of online searching. The thesaurus contains groupings of related terms called clusters, and is intended to maximize recall.rn3. Integration of the thesaurus and search interface into a single system, thus eliminating the necessity of moving in and out of the thesaurus in order to identify search terms, and eliminating the necessity of re-entering search terms that have been identified, as is often the case in existing systems.rn4. Design of this system for a multi-million item records management database. This system has been designed for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, for use by its 10,000 person staff, and is in the process of development now. Records management is an area of information retrieval system design that has been relatively neglected in information science. Design for such an environment has some interesting properties, which are dealt with in this article.