A while ago the following message was forwarded to our list:
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] LCSH Browser: LCC added
> Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:46:06 +0100
> From: Bernhard Eversberg <ev_at_BIBLIO.TU-BS.DE>
> Reply-To: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> <NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu>
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
>
> Nathan Rinne informed this forum, last week, about our experiment
> in LCSH browsing:
>
> http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/db/lcsh/
>
> Now, since the topical term LCSH authority records often contain
> LC Class numbers as well, we've just added another index and
> arranged it in ascending LCC order, displaying the topical term
> next to the number so as to give an idea what the number means.
It points to another example of how a word tool could be used as a
part of a "next generation" library catalog. In the example LCSH is
used as the thesaurus, but any number of thesauri could be used as
well. Not everything is described using LCSH, and the "catalog" may
very well contain things that are not books. Think journal articles,
encyclopedia articles, pictures, data sets, even definitions, etc.
Something like WordNet could form the technical foundation for such
an word tool implementation. [1] WordNet's infrastructure (read, API)
could even be used to allow people to add "tags" to supplement the
thesaurus. Hmmm...
[1] http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
P.S. "Thanks Mary L. for bringing this to my attention!"
--
Eric Lease Morgan
Received on Mon Mar 31 2008 - 13:00:30 EDT