Subject Headings Authority File

The tag (SWD ) is a controlled tag system (standard file ), which was mainly used for indexing in libraries. The SWD was managed by the German National Library (DNB ) in cooperation with various library networks. The inclusion of keywords in the SWD is defined in the rules for the Subject Catalogue ( RSWK ). Comparable systems in other languages ​​, the Library of Congress Subject Headings ( LCSH ) and the Répertoire d' autorité - matière encyclopédique et alphabétique unifié ( Rameau ).

End of April 2012, the SWD has been merged into the common authority file (GND).

Scope

The SWD contained mid-2003, about 600,000 descriptors and 700,000 non- preferred terms ( synonyms and quasi- synonymous terms, and equally significant subject strings with references to a descriptor ). The growth rate was about 5.5% per year. Approximately three quarters of the descriptors refer to individual concepts ( language names, persons, corporations, titles, ethnographic objects ...) and a quarter to abstract concepts. The link by means of hierarchical ( about 115,000 ) and associative relations ( about 26,000 ) is not very dense, which is why in the SWD also can not speak of a thesaurus.

The terms of the SWD are also classified in a classification of its own, with almost 500 classes in 36 main groups.

Structure

The individual terms are arranged in a systematic and contain additional references to sources, related terms, preferred term, and to a lesser extent hierarchical links. However, a complete thesaurus is the SWD due to the low degree of linkage rather not. The SWD stood until end of April 2012 online in the catalog database ILTIS and chargeable as BIBLIODATA together with the Name Authority File (PND ) and the Common Body Authority File ( GKD ) on the standard data CD -ROM and the standard file TITAN available.

In both cases, the user interface of the SWD was improved. Instead of making the SWD as a navigation tool to access user-friendly, it was familiar, that users are familiar with the SWD and its scheme and bring the appropriate keyword in the correct Authorized before a search. A navigating the system or on the references from one concept to another via hyperlinks was not possible. The strategy of the German National Library to distribute authority records commercially, also made ​​it difficult to re-use the SWD, eg in other conceptual systems.

For the exchange of authority records, there is a private MAB format. The Head Office of the South West German Library Network (SWB ) offered an online access ( OSWD ), which is used since May 2012 for the GND ( OGND ).