XV. Maintenance of Multilingual Thesauri
Thesauri are reflections of language and are therefore dynamic instruments. Policies and procedures should be established for periodic review of terminology, establishment of new descriptors, and replacement of obsolete descriptors, especially in fields of study where the terminology changes rapidly. The issue of updating controlled vocabularies is not dealt with in ISO 2788 or ISO 5964, and is treated only briefly in ANSI/NISO Z39. 19. Decisions on maintenance exist for each individual controlled vocabulary, such as the AAT itself (see AAT Editorial Manual, Chapter 3. 1), and must form the basis of updating policies for multilingual lists of equivalents based on those vocabularies. In multilingual thesaurus projects, policies for maintenance may be drawn up by all partners in the project, and should include an agreement to share information about changes made to terms by each partner, so that other partners can update their records, and the established equivalency work remains valid. The final responsibility for drawing up an updated equivalency list for a multilingual vocabulary usually lies with the institution that holds and presents the results of a particular equivalency project.
22. See ANSI/NISO Z39. 19-1993, Chapter 9.
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