This practical text examines the criteria relevant to the selection of a subject management system, describing the characteristics of some common types of subject tool, and taking the novice step-by-step through the process of creating a system for a specialist environment.

Includes index.

Introduction -- What is a thesaurus? -- Tools for subject access and retrieval -- What a thesaurus is used for -- Why use a thesaurus? -- Types of thesaurus -- The format of a thesaurus -- Building a thesaurus I: vocabulary collection -- Vocabulary control 1: selection of terms -- Vocabulary control 2: form of entry -- Building a thesaurus 2: term extraction from document titles -- Building a thesaurus 3: vocabulary analysis -- The thesaural relationships -- Building a thesaurus 4: introducing internal structure -- Building a thesaurus 5: imposing hierarchy -- Building a thesaurus 6: compound subjects and citation order -- Building a thesaurus 7: conversion of the taxonomy to alphabetical format -- Building a thesaurus 8: creating the thesaurus records -- Managing and maintaining the thesaurus : thesaurus software -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Appendix 1: Sample titles for thesaurus vocabulary -- Appendix 2: Sample terms for the thesaurus -- Appendix 3: Facets at stage 1 of analysis -- Appendix 4: Facets at stage 2 of analysis -- Appendix 5: Completed systematic display -- Appendix 6: Thesaurus entries for sample page.