Keywords

The content of the ODIS database is accessible through the use of keywords. The keywords serve only to indicate the subject. Names and titles can, however, all be looked up in full text and can be linked to one another. ODIS uses both (subject) keywords and geographical keywords.

Subject keywords

The keyword field refers to the nature and target group of the organisation, the activities of the person, and the subject of the periodical and archival records. Names of organisations, persons or periodicals are not entered.

Though the word systems (keyword lists, thesauri) of the four participating archival institutions were used as a starting point in setting up the thesaurus, the ODIS word system was developed sui generis.

Since users of the database have at their disposal a mixed access retrieval system (full-text retrieval) and attribution (keywords), the ODIS word system can be constructed in a post-co-ordinative way. The terms are combined during the search: in this way the ODIS word system constitutes a thesaurus. In a boolean search, users are presented with a range of possibilities and they can themselves construct complex subjects.

Nevertheless, a form of prior coordination is built in: hierarchical relations are made between the keywords by assigning to each subject three classes of keywords. These three classes are: (1) cluster keywords (2) group keywords and (3) specification keywords:

• cluster keywords reflect the macro-classification of the ODIS file (e.g. economics, culture, education);
• group keywords contain two types of keywords: the various types of organisations (e.g.: trade unions, professional associations) and the ideological and social orientations (e.g. socialism, solidarity);
• specification keywords: focus on the specific characteristics of the organisation, the individual, the periodical or the archival record.

The user is also guided during the search in other ways. Thus, a number of reference terms refer automatically to the preferred word usage (e.g. the keyword termination of pregnancy leads automatically to the synonym abortion). This word choice concerns not only synonyms, but also quasi- or occasional synonyms, such as antonyms.

Search terms are defined where necessary by means of qualifications and explanations. These definitions clarify the meaning of a term. Qualifications serve to differentiate terms with the same spelling (e.g. to spin [to make a thread]). The qualification is part of the term completely and is placed after the word.

Explanations are used to make clear which meaning is being ascribed to a term. Explanations do not form any part of the term and are placed after the word, between brackets (e.g. non-conformist (concept)).

In editing the terminology, a number of rules were taken into consideration. The principal rules are:

• terms with numbers are written with figures (e.g. May 1st celebrations);
• non-Latin letters are transliterated ;
• non-letter symbols (diacritic and punctuation signs, ideograms) are not translated into letter signs (e.g. Röntgen and not Roentgen);
• the plural is used for business terms (e.g. mineworkers and not mineworker). However, that is not the case with ideas, abstract concepts and terms based on individual concepts (proper names); nor is it the case for business terms that have different meanings in the singular and the plural: statistic/statistics; economic/economics);
• nouns or verbal nouns are mostly used (e.g. information and not to inform);
• in the Dutch version, the new spelling rules in Dutch are followed (e.g. Vlaamse beweging and not Vlaamse Beweging);
• compound words are avoided as much as possible, unless they concern a current expression (e.g. not child abuse, but: children; sexual abuse. But: child labour).

Geografical keywords

Geographical keywords illustrate an organisation’s operational reach, an individual’s range of influence, a publication’s distribution range or the geographical area in which a particular record is relevant.

The list of geographical keywords were arranged in a hierarchical order: continents, countries, Belgian provinces, urban districts, municipalities, interconnected regions. The database uses the present (1997) territorial and administrative divisions of Belgium. It includes an almost complete list of Belgian and Dutch place names as well as an extensive list of historical references.