Construction and evaluation of logical hierarchical structures of indexing languages for online catalogs of libraries

 The construction and updating of indexing languages depend on the organization of their logical hierarchical structures formed by categories and subcategories in order to determine the classification of related terms and, above all, to allow a constant updating of vocabulary, a fundamental condition for knowledge evolution. For this reason, a consistent methodology and support are required from other Knowledge Organization Systems that have proven useful and representative of knowledge areas.
The UNESP Language Group, composed of catalogers and researchers, was created and trained to deal with the inclusion of new terms into the UNESP indexing language by gradually replacing the LCARB previously adopted. The creation of new terms required the definition of a single macrostructure of thematic categories in the UNESP Language to guide the inclusion and classification of terms in order to compose the logical and hierarchical structure of superordinate and subordinate terms.
The present paper reports on the experience of the UNESP Language Group in the area of Knowledge Organization and Representation aimed to the construction of the logical-hierarchical structure of an indexing language for the ATHENA online catalog of UNESP university libraries network.