What is a controlled vocabulary? Abstract: The term “controlled vocabulary” is not universally understood by everyone to be the same thing. So that it can be used freely without misunderstanding, this document defines the term as a “weighted list of values, designed to improve searchability.” We provide a set of "rules of thumb" to use to determine whether a given set of values ​​is a controlled vocabulary, and provide guidance on how to populate one. What it is: At the time of writing, Wikipedia provides a nice and concise definition:In library and information sciences controlled vocabulary is a carefully selected list of words and phrases, which are used to label units of information (document or work) so that they can be more easily retrieved by a search. The key point to impress upon is that the list is "carefully selected", meaning that a person or group must deliberately decide on such words and sentences, before using them. A controlled vocabulary is not an automatic, comprehensive set of all things of a given type, but a set of distinctions deemed useful. This does not mean that a controlled vocabulary must be defined at a particular time and remain eternally unchanged. Such an approach can hinder information retrieval as existing terms begin to be abused as new concepts are added to the knowledge base. This means that any changes to the list of terms must require deliberate consideration and not simply be Business As Usual. .What are its characteristics? There are some characteristics of controlled vocabularies (CVs) that are clear and incontrovertible:• A field associated with a CV is constrained to contain only values ​​from that CV• A CV is a finite list and not a schema .After...... half of the document ......An analog-only monitoring organization treats TV and radio as distinct from each other. They start receiving IPTV, DVB and DAB. Should these new entries be added to the curriculum that has distinguished TV&Radio? The answer depends on how that CV is used. If it is used to select a receiving device, it probably should be. If, on the other hand, it is used to indicate whether a source is audio only or audio and video, then they should not be added. References Wikipedia Contributors, “Controlled Vocabulary,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en .wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Controlled_vocabulary&oldid=345857986 (accessed March 12, 2010). Works Cited Wikipedia Contributors, “Controlled Vocabulary,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w /index.php?title=Controlled_vocabulary&oldid=345857986 (accessed March 12, 2010).