Since 1998 I have been a member of the Railway Terminology Working Group, a group representing railway museums, the railway preservation movement, the railway modelling fraternity, etc. The Working Group was convened by mda to produce a thesaurus of railway object terms to facilitate consistent indexing of collections of railway artefacts, images, etc. I was recruited for my thesaurus and other museum terminology control skills. Having had a lifelong interest in railways, I feel particularly privileged to be working on this project with such a knowledgable team. In September 2002 mda published the first edition of the Railway Object Thesaurus, the outcome of a massive effort by Working Party members supported by a wider network of expert advisors, peer reviewers, etc. Much still remains to be done however, and the Working Group continues to meet to refine and extend the thesaurus.
A copy of the published version is available on-line at the mda web site but to keep my colleagues up to date with subsequent progress, I maintain an updated version on these web pages. This differs slightly in layout from the official published version, including working party and peer review comments, for example. This version may be viewed by anyone with a particular interest in the development of the thesaurus (follow the link below) but it must be stressed that this is work in progress and should not be used for cataloguing or reproduced in any form.
Contents list | Railway thesaurus - Working Party and Peer Review version |