Hypertext Presentation of Thesauri Used in Online Searching

In this article we explore the strengths and limitations of hypertext for the online presentation of thesauri used in information retrieval. We examine the ability of hypertext to support each of three common types of thesaurus display: graphic, alphabetical, and hierarchical. Graphic displays generated by hypertext browsers appear to be inferior to their printed counterparts. The simple alphabetical display can be easily mapped onto hypertext systems but has the inherent disadvantage of not showing a full hierarchy at the entry point for a term. Hierarchical displays are well suited to hypertext presentation but do not include definitional or complete relational information. We present a design for a hypertext-based hierarchical display that addresses many inadequacies of printed hierarchical displays. We also illustrate how this design might be implemented using a commercially available hypertext system. Finally, we consider issues related to the implementation and evaluation of hypertext-based thesauri.