Using the Transportation Research Thesaurus

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Using the Transportation Research Thesaurus

• Transportation Librarians Roundtable
• February 14, 2008
• Rita Evans and Seyem Petrites
• Institute of Transportation Studies Library
• University of California, Berkeley

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How ITS Library Uses the TRT

• Supplement LC Subject Headings
• Initiate searches in TRIS Online and TRB
  databases
• Index journal articles, reports and TRB Annual
  Meeting papers for TRIS

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TRT from TRBs Homepage
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or from NTLs Homepage
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TRT to supplement LC headings

• LC lags in adopting terminology
• TRT reflects actual usage
• TRT contain more specific terminology

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LC Subject Headings may be outdated
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Put LCSH into TRT to find term
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Catalog record can include both LCSH and TRT
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More specific terms
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Structured LC headings and TRT term
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MARC record showing TRT term
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Using the TRT to search

• From NTLs website, search TRIS Online
• From TRBs website, search RiP, RNS or TRB
  Publications Index

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Looking for highway construction
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Identifying TRT term
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Hierarchical display can lead to TRIS Online
search
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Search results from TRIS Online
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Using TRT from TRBs website
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Hierarchical view of TRT term
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Find TRB Publications using TRT term
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Results from TRB Publications search
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TRT for TRIS indexing

• Journal articles
• TRB annual meeting papers

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Indexing records for TRIS
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Look-up table showing term
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TRT showing term
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TRB meeting paper completed indexing
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Using the TRT provides

• Structured view of transportation terms
• Controlled vocabulary for indexing
• A starting point for searching TRIS Online and
  TRB databases
• More specific terminology used by practitioners