The Victoria Online Thesaurus is a subject thesaurus of descriptive terms that reflect the themes and resources within Victoria Online (VO), the Victorian Government’s online portal. Victoria Online is a metadata-driven gateway to Victorian State, Federal and Local government information. The VO Thesaurus has been developed to populate the Keyword (DC.Subject) field within the VO Metadata Application Profile (VOMAP).
It has been built according to the VO Thesaurus Guidelines, which are based on the ANSI/NISO Standard Z39.19-2003 Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri. A report outlining its development and release is available.
The first edition of the VO Thesaurus was developed by Victoria Online and was released in September 2005.
The eighth edition of the VO Thesaurus was released in July 2009. It contains 6,026 terms, with 2,502 preferred terms grouped across 31 subject categories. 36 new preferred terms have been added. An html version is also available.
In December 2005, Victoria Online won the Sir Rupert Hamer Records Management Award 2005 - Inner Budget Agency - for delivery of the Victoria Online Thesaurus.
The thesaurus is available in a number of formats including:
The development report is also available:
You can also convert PDF documents into alternative formats.
All spelling follows the form preferred by the Macquarie Dictionary. Australian English is the preferred spelling form but spelling variations will be recorded as synonyms.
Version 2.6, July 2009.
Published by Victoria Online, Information Victoria, Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development.
The VO Thesaurus is managed by Victoria Online. It is managed and updated regularly in response to continuing site analysis of the Victoria Online website. Suggestions from other agencies may be considered and any feedback should be directed to victoria.online@diird.vic.gov.au.
The VO Thesaurus has been developed to match the specific information and discoverability requirements of Victoria Online. You may access and use the VO Thesaurus. You must not alter, vary or amend the contents of the VO Thesaurus.
The thesaurus is available in a number of formats including:
The development report is also available:
You can also convert PDF documents into alternative formats.
The Victoria Online Thesaurus structure is outlined below:
This is the term which has been nominated as the preferred term for a given concept or subject.
Used For or non-preferred terms (synonyms) are used in conjunction with the preferred term when populating the Keyword (DC.Subject) metadata field. UF terms can include synonyms, near synonyms, narrower but not used concepts, singular forms of non-standard plurals, abbreviations and acronyms if commonly known, spelling variations such as American spelling or different spacings.
Examples include:
Bushwalking
UF Hiking
Animal registration
UF Pet registration
Animal registration
UF Cat registration
Libraries
UF Library
HIV/AIDS
UF AIDS
Licensing
UF Licencing
Scope notes are to be created for terms where the meaning or intended use is ambiguous or needing further clarification. Scope notes are not required to be full grammatical sentences.
A Broader Term represents a broader hierarchical concept than the concept represented by a term.
Examples include:
Air Pollution
BT Pollution
Ombudsmen
BT Officials
Buses
BT Public transport
BT Vehicles
A Narrower Term represents a narrower hierarchical concept than the concept represented by a term.
Examples include:
Pollution
NT Air pollution
Officials
NT Ombudsmen
Public transport
NT Buses
Vehicles
NT Buses
A Related Term is a term that is neither equivalent (synonymous) nor hierarchical (broader or narrower) but which is conceptually associated with another term. The relationship is symmetrical, in that the relationship is represented in both associated terms’ structures. Related Terms can be:
Examples include:
ABNs
BT Business identification
RT ACNs
ACNs
BT Business identification
RT ABNs
RT Business registration
Home owners
BT Groups
RT Home ownership
Injuries
BT Accidents
RT First aid
Ozone protection
BT Environmental protection
RT Ozone layer
All preferred terms are assigned to one or more subject category:
If you require a Microsoft Word or CSV version of the VO Thesaurus, please contact Victoria Online at victoria.online@diird.vic.gov.au. Prior to being provided a Microsoft Word or CSV version, you will be required to enter into a licence agreement setting out the terms and conditions of use of these versions of the VO Thesaurus.
Last updated: 10 August 2009
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