Sally:

The following is taken from:
A GLOSSARY OF ARCHIVAL AND RECORDS TERMINOLOGY
Richard Pearce-Moses
Exposure Draft : 26 June 2004
Chicago, 2004
Society of American Archivists

classification scheme
RT: mnemonic filing system
n., - also classification plan ~ A diagram or chart that describes
standard categories used to organize materials with similar
characteristics.
Notes
Classification schemes are often hierarchical in nature and frequently
associating codes with each class. Typically used in an
office of origin to file active records or in archives as a finding aid.
Libraries commonly use either the Library of Congress Classification
System or the Dewey Decimal Classification to organize their
books. These bibliographic standards have only limited use in
archives, which maintain the records in their original order.

controlled vocabulary
NT: Art and Architecture Thesaurus, Library of Congress
Subject Headings
RT: authority file, classification, descriptor, index, index term,
thesaurus, Thesaurus for Geographic Names, Thesaurus
for Graphic Materials, vocabulary
n. ~ A limited set of terms and phrases used as headings in indexes
and as access points in catalogs.
Notes
Terms in a controlled vocabulary are selected so that only one
term represents a concept, allowing all material relating to that
concept to be retrieved using that term even if the term does not
appear in the text. The term used for indexing purposes is the
preferred term. The vocabulary may also include cross references
from non-preferred terms to preferred terms.
Citations
Without a controlled vocabulary, one cannot ensure the retrievability
of the records sought and only those records. . . . The totality
of all the identified access points, the preferred terms and the
linkages established among preferred and variant terms within a
particular [authority] file. [Durrance, Authority Control, p. 41
(73)]

thesaurus
RT: authority file, controlled vocabulary, cross reference,
Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management
of Monolingual Thesauri
n., - thesauruses, thesauri, pl. ~ 1. A list of words with related
meanings, including synonyms and antonyms. - 2. A specialized
vocabulary of words and phrases, indicating a preferred term
among synonyms and showing relationships between terms, and
commonly used for indexing or classification.
Notes
A thesaurus is distinguished from dictionaries and glossaries, the
latter not establishing a preferred term among synonymous terms.
A thesaurus often contains nothing more than headings and their
relationships, where dictionaries and glossaries usually contain
definitions and annotations on word use.
Citations
A thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary arranged in a known order
and structured so that equivalence, homographic, hierarchical,
and associative relationships among terms are displayed clearly
and identified by standardized relationship indicators that are
employed reciprocally. The primary purposes of a thesaurus are
(a) to facilitate retrieval of documents and (b) to achieve consistency
in the indexing of written or otherwise recorded documents
and other items, mainly for postcoordinate information storage
and retrieval systems. [Guidelines for the Construction, Format,
and Maintenance of Monolingual Thesauri (106)]

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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