Multi Lingual Thesaurusfor the Geosciences

Jan Jellema

TNO-NITG

Geological Survey of the Netherlands

(EuroGeoSurveys)

Finding your information In a friendly and stable environment Clear hierarchical concepts Connect to further information like

dictionaries, databases, documents

ReUse existing information Controlled vocabulary Uniform and Structured indexed paths Separate Domain Knowledge and

Operational Knowledge

HISTORY of the MTG

1972 IUGS/ICSTI Working groep 1988 First edition paperback 1995 Second edition paperback 2000 Internet (GEIXS) (Finland)

Involved Institutes AGI, USA BRGM, Fr CNRS, Fr BGR, De VSEGEI, Ru ITGE, Es CNR, It Geofond, Cz GTK, Fi

TNO-NITG, Nl GIH, Hu SGU, Sw Geolba, At

China Japan Thailand

Present State of Art 10.000 terms 11 languages Polyhierarchy Maintenance and update in MS-Access (Dictionary for hydrology and building materials) Internetfacilities (incl. Cyrillic and Chinese)

Contemporary Developments

GeoRef USA 28.000 Pascal-Geode Fr 8.000 VIEMS Ru, Uk, Fr, De 14.000 WordNet UK,Es 2.000 BGS, GSAUk 8.000 GeoSaurusUk 10.000 Geodesc Brasilian 5.000 EuroDicAut. EU translation 100.000

Our special difficulties

Many different disciplineschemistry, fysica, fossils, climate, ecomomy,hydrology, etc.

Different languagesdifferent content and meaning of terms

Structure

Main definitions

Thesaurus: Collection of keyterms (struct) Ontology: Classes with structure Knowledge base: Classes with structure and

facts

Modern developments

Automatic maintenance thesaurus Ontology, RDF, XML Multi Aspect Modelling User input Connection to databases, search-routines

and forms (Webservices)

Present Goals

Integration of existing thesauri Decentral maintenance XML Integration with Internet Search and

Knowledge management (Semantic). Extensions with popular terms and

specialized hierarchies

Discussion

Goal Future Functionality Organisational Structure Rules and procedures for upgrading Integration in other applications Budget

Not A tool for librarians

Yes

An orienting and translating tool for insiders and outsiders needing geo-information

EU-PROPOSALTools

forGeo-Terminology

“GEOTERM”

Proposed actions

Define organisation Define guidelines content Restore Internet presence Relate to other thesauri Decentral XML-scheme per language. Automate upgrading Integration with other applications

Layered structure

Multilingual Thesaurus 4.000

National extensions

National extensions

Specialextensions

Objects 200

Geodisciplines

Translations

Dictionary

Proposed Structure

NationalRepository

Data Entry

XML

National ExpertMaintenance

SearchWebservice

UserInterface

StructuresHierarchy

International ExpertMaintenance

TranslationWebservice

Decentral Organisation

ID - translated term - description - broader term

ID -

Public XML file at every Geological Survey

Procedure new ID’s ?

EU-PROPOSALTools

forGeo-Terminology

“GEOTERM”