Review of Content Standard

ISO 5964:1985
Documentation – Guidelines for the establishment and
development of multilingual thesauri
January, 2006
This review is intended to assess the potential utility of content standards for use and
potentially for inclusion in an ISO 11179-based metadata registry. The review is directed
primarily toward the utility of the standard itself, rather than to matching the standard
with specific agency programs. The review covers issues such as the subject area,
currency, quality, authority, and acceptance of the standards. These are factors that need
to be taken into account no matter what the programmatic application of the standard may
be.
1. Summary
This standard should be used in conjunction with ISO 2788, and regarded as an extension
of the scope of the monolingual guidelines. The majority of procedures and
recommendations contained in ISO 2788 are equally valid for a multilingual thesaurus.
This applies particularly to general procedures, for example, the forms of terms, the basic
thesaural relationships, and management operations such as evaluation and maintenance.
Distinction is made between preferred terms and non-preferred terms.

2. Identification of Standard
2.1. Title
Documentation – Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual
thesauri

2.2. Acronym
None
2.3. Web page(s), Identifier, or Contact Information:
2.3.1 Web page(s)
http://www.iso.ch/iso/
2.3.2 Identifier

ISO 5964:1985
2.3.3 Contact Information
SO/TC 46/SC 9 Secretariat
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A 0N4
Canada
E-mail: iso.tc46.sc9@lac-bac.gc.ca
Scope:

Standardization of practices relating to libraries, documentation and

information centers, indexing and abstracting services, archives,
information science and publishing.

2.4 Authority
2.4.1 Creator
ISO TC 46, Information and documentation

2.4.2. Acceptance as authoritative

This ISO committee is responsible for standardization of practices

relating to libraries, documentation and information centers, indexing
and abstracting services, archives, information science and
publishing.

2.5 Publisher
ISO 5964 was prepared within ISO Technical Committee (TC) 46 which develops
International Standards for information and documentation. The responsibility for ISO
5964 was assigned to TC 46/Subcommittee 9.
2.6 Language(s)
English and French.

3. Content description
3.1 Subject area of content and area of application

Contents of ISO 5964:1985

0. Introduction

1. Scope and field of application

2. References

3. Definitions

4. General

5. Abbreviations and symbols

6. Vocabulary control

7. The establishment of a multilingual thesaurus: general problems

8. The establishment of a multilingual thesaurus: management

decisions

9. The establishment of a multilingual thesaurus: language problems

10. Establishing equivalent terms in different languages

11. Other language problems

12. Relationships between terms in a multilingual thesaurus

13. Display of terms and relationships

14. Form and contents of a multilingual thesaurus

15. Organization of work

Annex A: Symbolization of thesaural relationships

Annex B: Examples of displays

3.2 Kind of content

The guidelines given in this International Standard should be used in
conjunction with ISO 2788, and regarded as an extension of the scope
of the monolingual guidelines. It is considered that the majority of
procedures and recommendations contained in ISO 2788 are equally
valid for a multilingual thesaurus. This applies particularly to general
procedures concerning, for example, the forms of terms, the basic
thesaural relationships, and management operations such as
evaluation and maintenance. Except when it appears to be necessary,
the procedures described in ISO 2788 are not repeated here, and it is
therefore essential to refer to both of these International Standards
when constructing a multilingual thesaurus.
These guidelines are restricted in scope to the problems of
multingualism which can arise during the construction of a
"conventional" thesaurus, i.e. a thesaurus displaying terms selected
from more than one natural language, these terms then constituting
the vocabulary of a controlled indexing language. Throughout this
International Standard, a distinction is made between preferred terms
and non-preferred terms (see definitions in clause 3). These guidelines
are not applicable to indexing languages in which concepts are
expressed entirely as symbols (for example mathematical equations or
chemical formulae), nor to systems which are based on the automatic
analysis and searching of free text. It is considered, however, that a
well-constructed multilingual thesaurus can play a significant part in
improving retrieval from a free-text system which covers documents in
more than one language.

Multilingual thesauri are relatively recent developments in the field of

documentation, and it is inevitable, therefore, that the present
guidelines should display certain limitations.

a) The examples used to illustrate problems encountered in the

establishment of term equivalences have been drawn largely from the
fields of science (including the social sciences) and technology. As far
as possible, however, examples were chosen which illustrate general
problems and procedures, i.e. those which should apply in any field of
knowledge.
b) It is realized that the procedures described in these guidelines may
not be entirely appropriate for all languages. The examples have been
selected, for entirely pragmatic reasons, from three of the major
languages, i.e. English, French and German, but this does not imply
that these languages are regarded as dominant in the field of
documentation. As far as possible the procedures considered here,
together with their accompanying examples, relate to problems that
may be encountered in any language.

3.3 Audience(s)
Other ISO and IEC committees in liaison:
ISO TC 6, TC 10, TC 37, TC 37/SC 2, TC 154, TC 171, TC 211
ISO/IEC JTC 1, JTC 1/SC 29, JTC 1/SC 32, JTC 1/SC 34
International organizations in liaison: CE - Commission, CIDOC,
CISAC, DOI, EASE, IAEA, ICA - archives, ICSTI - council, IFLA, IFSE,
IIR, ISSN-IC, ITU, TERMNET, UN, UN/ECE, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
UPU, WIPO

TC 46/CG Coordinating group

The convener can be reached through: AFNOR

TC 46/WG 2 Coding of country names and related entities

The convener can be reached through: AFNOR

TC 46/WG 3 Conversion of written languages

The convener can be reached through: ELOT

TC 46/WG 4 Terminology of information and documentation

The convener can be reached through: ISIRI

3.4 Related Standards/3.5 Standards Dependencies

See the Cmap “Thesaurus Standards Relationships”

3.6 Content Quality
This standard is accepted as the authority on which to base multilingual thesaurus
applications.
4. Currency of Content
4.1 Date
1985

4.2 Versions, Updates

This is the current version.

4.3 Currency
As this is not a volatile area of research, this version is still current.
5. Acceptance
This standard is accepted as the authority on which to base multilingual thesaurus
applications.

6. Content details
6.1 Size statistics (estimated)
Printed version: 61 pages

6.2 Format / Schemas(s)/6.3 Media / Download

Add to shopping basket Size Price

ISO 5964:1985 PDF version (en) 11402 KB CHF 164,00

ISO 5964:1985 PDF version (fr) 6864 KB CHF 164,00

ISO 5964:1985 paper version (en) CHF 164,00

ISO 5964:1985 paper version (fr) CHF 164,00

6.4 Licensing Issues
This standard is an ISO Standard and subject to copyright. The full
text of ISO 5964 is available for purchase (in separate English and
French editions) from the ISO and its national member organizations.

6.5 Documentation
Documentation is available at the ISO website.