The collaboration between the Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program (TELDAP) and non-profit organization, the Getty Research Institute , was first initiated in late 2008 to build the Chinese version of the thesaurus. The Getty began the building of the Art & Architecture Thesaurus® back in the late 1970s. Since then the AAT has accumulated around 131,000 terms, 34,000 concepts. The AAT-Taiwan is a hierarchical database. In addition to the hierarchical relationships, it also has equivalence and associative relationships, making it a thesaurus in compliance with ISO and NISO standards. By incorporating Eastern concepts of art, architecture, installations, material culture, and materials into the AAT-Taiwan, we are able to provide catalogers, researchers and general public in the Chinese-speaking societies worldwide with a well-developed and authoritative information database.
STRUCTURE AND CONTENT
The Art & Architecture Thesaurus Taiwan (AAT-Taiwan) distinguishes itself from an array of online dictionaries and encyclopedias with its hierarchical display of concepts to encourage intuitive exploration and learning. Say you have a concept in mind, like “oracle bone script.” The AAT-Taiwan not only tells you it is the narrower term of “seal script” (Chart A), you can also discover other concepts under “seal script” simply by clicking the icon on its left (Chart B).
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By the end of 2009, Art & Architecture Thesaurus Taiwan (AAT-Taiwan) has contained more than 10,000 concepts. The building of AAT-Taiwan involves not only professionals in translation field, but also domain experts to participate in content verification procedure to enhance the authoritativeness of the AAT-Taiwan. Based on their expertise, the AAT-Taiwan is able to add new terms and concepts of cultural-specific nature into the database, such as Chinese scripts, Chinese painting styles, ritual vessels…etc. These concepts can each be categorized into one of the seven facets in the AAT-Taiwan, including Associated Concepts Facet, Physical Attributes Facet, Styles and Periods Facet, Agents Facet, Activities Facet, Activities Facet, Materials Facet, and Objects Facet. Each facet includes the following record types, Hierarchy name, concept, and guide term.
The facets are conceptually organized in a scheme that proceeds from abstract concepts to concrete, physical artifacts, such as shape, patterns, colors, styles and periods, techniques, agents, materials, and objects. In the AAT-Taiwan, a concept provides terminology and other information about the objects, concepts, and styles important to various disciplines that specialize in art, architecture and material culture.
‧ types of objects（ex：sculpture）
‧ materials（ex：bronze）
‧ activities（ex：casting）
‧ styles and periods（ex：Late Bronze Age）
‧ types of people（ex：sculptors）
‧ other attributes or abstract concepts（ex：symmetry, bronze）
The AAT-Taiwan contains generic terms to describe these subjects without iconographic subjects and no proper names. That is, each concept is a case of many (a generic thing), not a case of one (a specific thing). The primary users of the AAT-Taiwan include museums, art libraries, archives, visual resource collection catalogers, bibliographic projects concerned with art, researchers in art and art history, and the information specialists who are dealing with the needs of these users. The building of AAT-Taiwan involves not only professionals in translation field, but also domain experts to participate in content verification procedure to enhance the authoritativeness of the AAT-Taiwan. Based on their expertise, the AAT-Taiwan is able to add new terms and concepts of cultural-specific nature into the database, such as Chinese scripts, Chinese painting styles, ritual vessels…etc. These concepts can each be categorized into one of the seven facets in the AAT-Taiwan, including Associated Concepts Facet, Physical Attributes Facet, Styles and Periods Facet, Agents Facet, Activities Facet, Activities Facet, Materials Facet, and Objects Facet.
FEATURES
Do you know how to utilize Art & Architecture Thesaurus Taiwan (AAT-Taiwan) with its existing features? Here are five examples that will allow you to fully grasp some important basic functions and effects of this thesaurus. For more search tips, please visit User Guide
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