Tesauros en acceso abierto en internet. Un análisis cuantitativo

Abstract

This work offers a quantitative analysis of publicly available thesauri in different European languages in order to check publication trends and their degree of adherence to thesauri construction guidelines. The following parameters were analysed: publisher's name and location, number of terms, subject coverage, query modes, latest update, level of content in introduction and on-line help. The results reveal the prevalence of thesauri published in Western Europe; English is the most frequently used language; social sciences have the highest number of thesauri among the knowledge areas observed; only one third of the thesauri has a search engine; on average, there is a poor level of content in the introductions and in the on-line help. In conclusion, many publicly available thesauri do not take advantage offered by the Internet for querying their content and should improve their interfaces.