Building a navigation structure for HealthInsite using thesaurus management software
Short Session, presented by Prue Deacon.
This presentation will show how the broader/narrower relationships in a thesaurus structure can be the basis for a classification scheme and hence support a site navigation structure.
HealthInsite is a gateway website linking to over 16,000 resources on 80 quality-assessed health websites around Australia. Browsing in HealthInsite is largely based on topic pages. New topic pages are created on the basis of user feedback, search logs or whenever justified by sufficient relevant resources in the database. Topic pages are linked in a parent/child and related page arrangement but there has been no underlying framework. With over 1000 topic pages there was potential for inconsistency and omissions in the links. We wondered if thesaurus management software might help. The full broader/narrower term display available from thesaurus software is similar to a library classification scheme but with the added benefit of allowing polyhierarchy. This makes it similar to a hierarchical navigation structure for a website. This presentation describes our project to retrospectively build a navigation structure for HealthInsite using Term Tree, with some discussion of thesauri, classification schemes, navigation and site maps.
Prue Deacon
Prue Deacon (BSc(Hons), Grad.Dip.Lib, AALIA(CP)) is a librarian in the HealthInsite Editorial Team with responsibility for metadata management. She has 30 years of experience with subject indexing, cataloguing, thesaurus development and metadata, primarily in the health sector. Prue is a member of the AGLS Working Group and set up the original metadata specifications for HealthInsite in line with Dublin Core and AGLS standards. She is a Certified Practitioner Associate of the Australian Library and Information Association and is currently enrolled in the Master of Information Architecture course at Charles Sturt University.