Peace & Security Studies Thesaurus Mark Weixel University Center for International Studies University of Pittsburgh Mark Weixel University Center for International Studies University of Pittsburgh

Review  Peace & Security Studies Thesaurus originally funded by US Institute of Peace in effort to create a control vocabulary for Security Studies  First draft finished in 2002 based on input during a congress of academic experts  Adopted as a test indexing vocabulary for a project at University of Pittsburgh  Peace & Security Studies Thesaurus originally funded by US Institute of Peace in effort to create a control vocabulary for Security Studies  First draft finished in 2002 based on input during a congress of academic experts  Adopted as a test indexing vocabulary for a project at University of Pittsburgh

Review: Continued  USIP approached Pitt in 2004 concerning PSST  Needed a control vocabulary for a new portal to facilitate a knowledge network focused on Rule of Law issues in peacekeeping missions  Multi-purpose portal with federated content contribution (text, documents, images from various parties--UNDPKO, OSCE, CoESPU)  USIP approached Pitt in 2004 concerning PSST  Needed a control vocabulary for a new portal to facilitate a knowledge network focused on Rule of Law issues in peacekeeping missions  Multi-purpose portal with federated content contribution (text, documents, images from various parties--UNDPKO, OSCE, CoESPU)

Thesaurus Expansion  Needed to expand vocabulary to handle new legal terms  Original Plan: Use a portal to facilitate communication between a new panel of experts  Forums for discussion  Polls to vote on proposed terms  updates to alert panel of updates  Needed to expand vocabulary to handle new legal terms  Original Plan: Use a portal to facilitate communication between a new panel of experts  Forums for discussion  Polls to vote on proposed terms  updates to alert panel of updates

Plans Change…  Committee members, while generally enthusiastic, were slow to adapt to portal  After schedule slid, changed tack:  Asked each committee member to recommend 5 “authoritative references,” which were then analyzed for key concepts  Concepts were listed in a ballot for committee members to approve or reject  Committee members, while generally enthusiastic, were slow to adapt to portal  After schedule slid, changed tack:  Asked each committee member to recommend 5 “authoritative references,” which were then analyzed for key concepts  Concepts were listed in a ballot for committee members to approve or reject

Term Collection  Print materials: concordance of keywords taken from book’s index  Electronic materials: analyzed using ConceptQ  Software creates concordance and performs network analysis on corpus to determine main concepts based on frequency of occurrence and position  Print materials: concordance of keywords taken from book’s index  Electronic materials: analyzed using ConceptQ  Software creates concordance and performs network analysis on corpus to determine main concepts based on frequency of occurrence and position

The Experts Vote  A ballot with over 1050 terms was presented to committee members  Majority vote won, with weighting for expertise  Experts only rejected about two dozen terms  A ballot with over 1050 terms was presented to committee members  Majority vote won, with weighting for expertise  Experts only rejected about two dozen terms

…the Rules Change  Original plan for use changed  Instead of using thesaurus terms to index/tag items in INPROL portal, USIP opted for a decidedly smaller taxonomy, consisting of aggregated concepts  Map needed from thesaurus terms to taxonomy items  Prevents past year from being a complete waste  Thesaurus more finely grained than taxonomy  Original plan for use changed  Instead of using thesaurus terms to index/tag items in INPROL portal, USIP opted for a decidedly smaller taxonomy, consisting of aggregated concepts  Map needed from thesaurus terms to taxonomy items  Prevents past year from being a complete waste  Thesaurus more finely grained than taxonomy

Nuts & Bolts  Terms are managed in TermChoir  Organized into 4 vocabularies (General International Relations, Rule of Law Issues, Geography, Roles of States, Orgs, & Individuals)  Terms exported out to XML  Public access via custom script to search & retrieve XML version  Terms are managed in TermChoir  Organized into 4 vocabularies (General International Relations, Rule of Law Issues, Geography, Roles of States, Orgs, & Individuals)  Terms exported out to XML  Public access via custom script to search & retrieve XML version

Novus Modus Operandi  A “librarian” in the knowledge network assesses content (reading/ConceptQ)  Based on concepts, then searches thesaurus  Mapped categories used to index item in portal  A “librarian” in the knowledge network assesses content (reading/ConceptQ)  Based on concepts, then searches thesaurus  Mapped categories used to index item in portal

Current Status  1040 terms in Thesaurus  329 in Rule of Law vocabulary  287 have been categorized according to INPROL taxonomy  209 categorized RoL terms  Categorization continuing  1040 terms in Thesaurus  329 in Rule of Law vocabulary  287 have been categorized according to INPROL taxonomy  209 categorized RoL terms  Categorization continuing