In an effort to further improve on-line access, a thesaurus has been developed that provides a controlled vocabulary for use in searching across the Anthropology Division's collections. The goal of this thesaurus is to allow users to browse through a hierarchical structure to locate individual objects and to see broader, narrower, and related terms rather than having to perform a tradition search on individual terms.
This thesaurus is based upon the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) produced by The Getty Research Institute and follows as closely as possible its theoretical model for the organization of concepts (categories). Where the AAT differs in its description of an object or concept found in the AMNH collection, the AMNH term is inserted into the appropriate position in the existing AAT hierarchy. It was designed to demonstrate the capabilities of a thesaurus in searching across the AMNH anthropological collections and to generate feedback from researchers and the public.
For the detailed description of the thesaurus development, refer to the article: "The Development of a Local Thesaurus to Improve Access to the Anthropological Collections of the American Museum of Natural History," published in D-Lib Magazine.