AIATSIS Place Thesaurus


Using the thesaurus

Important:
The thesaurus has been set up in a way that allows automatic searching of the AIATSIS on-line catalogue, Mura®. Before clicking on the links to search the catalogue, please read our sensitivity message.

Types of searches you can perform

There is a drop-down box of different search options, where you can select the type of search you want to make. It is currently set (as a default) to "Search terms by keyword".

  Search terms by keyword

Enter in a word or set of letters in the search box, then click on the search button, and this setting will search for that string anywhere within the term. For example, typing in 'wood' will find Woodah Isle as well as Mount Ringwood.

  Terms that start with ...

The search option will only find terms beginning with the letters you have typed into the search box. If you know the start of the term you are looking for, but not the whole term, use this option (it will bring back fewer results than "Search thesaurus by keyword").

Display formats

The initial search will display a list terms in alphabetical order starting with your search term.

Clicking on a term will display the full record for that term along with its relationships to other terms. Terms in italics are the non-preferred terms. Clicking on those terms will display the full record with a link to the preferred term.

BT: Broader Term
NT: Narrower Term
RT: Related Term
UF: Use For


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Structure and display

Hierarchical relationships

The thesaurus is based on a hierarchical structure.

The place thesaurus contains headings for place names within Australia, using the Indigenous place name first, wherever possible. The headings include the grid reference to the 1:250,000 map grid series (eg. Lake Hindmarsh (NW Vic SJ54-03)).

The following abbreviations have been used in the thesaurus: "Broader Terms" represent more general concepts than "Narrower Terms", which are more specific terms. These are labelled as BT (broader term) and its reciprocal relationship of NT (narrower term).

Example:

Pilbara area (WA SF50, SF51, SG50)
  BT: Western Australia (WA)
  NT: Ashburton River (WA Pilbara SF50)
  NT: Barrow Island (WA SF50-01)


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Searching the AIATSIS catalogue from the thesaurus

This thesaurus has been set up to allow automatic searching of the AIATSIS catalogue. Once you have displayed the full record for a term, the 'Search AIATSIS' link will give you the option of performing an automatic search of the AIATSIS catalogue, Mura®, for that specific term. Further refinement of the search by item type is available from the drop-down menu to the right of 'Search AIATSIS'.

Description of search options

All
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to all item types in the AIATSIS catalogue for the term from the thesaurus.

Books and Book Chapters
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to books, and book chapters from the AIATSIS catalogue for the term from the thesaurus.

Manuscripts and Microforms
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to manuscripts, microfiche and microfilm from the AIATSIS catalogue for the term from the thesaurus.

Language collection
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to items in the language collection from the AIATSIS catalogue for the term from the thesaurus.

Recorded sound collection
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to the recorded sound collections held in the AIATSIS Audiovisual Archive, for the term from the thesaurus.

Film and video
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to film and videos held in the AIATSIS Audiovisual Archive, for the term from the thesaurus.

Pictorial collection
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to the pictorial collections held in the AIATSIS Audiovisual Archive, for the term from the thesaurus.

Rare books, Pamphlets and Serials
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to rare books, rare pamphlets and rare serials from the AIATSIS catalogue for the term from the thesaurus.

Serials, Serial Articles and Pamphlets
This option will automatically search for and retrieve records relating to serials, serial articles and pamphlets from the AIATSIS catalogue for the term from the thesaurus.

If your catalogue search is unsuccessful you will see a browse list of headings. You can navigate through this list if you wish or return to the thesaurus and select to search the catalogue by a different item type.


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The following resources may also be of interest:

  Place Name Search (Geoscience Australia)

  Map from Norman B. Tindale's "Aboriginal tribes of Australia" (1974)

  Australian mapping organisations



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Updated October 2007
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