Abstract

The author argues that the list of authorities, as well as a professional tool, may represent an important role in information retrieval. The purpose of this paper is to offer an example to highlight how libraries and document databases have failed or have not yet reached their full potential in the knowledge society.

Abstract

In 1974, Unesco published the Nomenclature for Fields of Science and Technology. Since then, it has been used in Spain to classify the scientific activity. In order to better determine its characteristics, development and scope, we studied the literature and analysed its use by university research groups in Spain and in other national and international settings. From the data obtained, we designed an ontology based on the combination of the Nomenclature and keywords identified in the literature. The result is an ontological model adapted to the semantic web technologies that provides a higher degree of expressiveness than the original Nomenclature. It also helps to solve problems such as obsolescence and the absence of certain emerging subject areas, facilitating the classification of scientific activities and increasing its usefulness