Thesauri relationships reflect the underlying conceptual interactions between terms. If followed consistently when building a thesaurus, they are intended to help users select the most appropriate term in order to express a concept. Usually users perform searches using a term that seems the most fitting for a given concept to them. That does not necessarily mean that the term they use is the most appropriate to express the desired concept. In this respect, thesauri relations can help by:
- providing, for the term used, a context that clarifies its scope and indicated whether it is appropriate
- directing the user to other terms that are equivalent to the one used so that they can select the one that is designated are the preferred term in the thesaurus
There are 3 main relationships in a thesauri.
Figure: Graphical representation of thesauri relations
