Root of obsolete branch
Identifier pattern
Preferred namespace URI
Preferred namespace prefix
naltExample of resource
Ontologies
NALT
General information
Abstract
The thesaurus is organized into 17 subject categories, indicated by the "Subject Category" designation. The subject categories are used to browse the Thesaurus in a specific discipline or subject area.
The subject scope of agriculture is broadly defined in the thesaurus, and includes terminology in the supporting biological, physical and social sciences. Biological nomenclature comprises a majority of the terms in the thesaurus and is located in the “Taxonomic Classification of Organisms” Subject Category. Political geography is mainly described at the country level.
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Description
The NAL Agricultural Thesaurus (NALT) antecedent, the Agricultural-Biological Vocabulary was first published in August 1967 by the the National Agricultural Library for use in indexing and cataloging. In 2002, it was released online as the National Agricultural Library Thesaurus and Glossary, and became known as "NALT". The vocabulary has in-depth coverage of agriculture, biology, and related disciplines. The Spanish language version of NALT was first published in May 2007 under the Spanish language name "Tesauro Agrícola", and was created in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and Latin American agricultural institutions of the Agriculture Information and Documentation Service of the Americas (SIDALC). In 2022 NALT was redesigned as part of the Library's "NALT for the Machine Age" initiative and released as NALT Concept Space, a state-of-the-art multischeme semantic system with added features for expanded usage with tabular data, in addition to traditional text (indexing and cataloging) data. The semantic structure allows for multiple domain specific vocabularies within the NALT Concept Space, and is standardized for data interoperability, enhanced scalability, and machine readability. Inaugural NALT vocabularies included NALT Core, and NALT Full, with more domains to be added each year. "NALT Full", includes all NALT concepts from all NALT vocabularies, and was first published in 2022 when it consisted of 77,093 concepts. NALT Full is NALT's broadest and deepest coverage, for a more granular knowledge base., The NAL Agricultural Thesaurus (NALT) was first released by the National Agricultural Library in 2002, with in-depth coverage of agriculture, and was created in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and other Latin American agricultural institutions belonging to the Agriculture Information and Documentation Service of the Americas (SIDALC). In 2022 NALT was redesigned as part of the Library's "NALT for the Machine Age" initiative, and is a state-of-the-art multischeme concept space with added structural features for enhanced scalability and machine readability. Inaugural schemes included NALT Core, and NALT Full.
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Initial created on
January 31, 2022.
For additional information, contact
Sujata Suri (sujata.suri@ars.usda.gov) and Jennifer Woodward (jennifer.woodward@usda.gov).
Languages
Categories and subjects
Metrics
FAIR score
Ontology relations network
Submissions
Identifiers
URI
AgroPortal URI
Dates
Creation date
January 31, 2022
Submission date
February 5, 2025
Modification date
July 16, 2024
Persons and organizations
Contact
Publisher
Other links
Has format
Indexed or included in catalog or repository
Projects and usage information
Known usage
The thesaurus is primarily used for indexing and for improving retrieval of agricultural information. Currently, the thesaurus is the indexing vocabulary for the National Agricultural Library's bibliographic database of citations to agricultural resources, AGRICOLA. The Food Safety Research Information Office (FSRIO) and Agricultural Network Information Center (AgNIC) also use the NALT as the indexing vocabulary for their information systems. In addition, the NALT is used as an aid for locating information at the Agricultural Research Service, Economic Research Service and AgNIC web sites and databases.Designed for task (as defined by OMV).
Coverage
In depth coverage of agriculture, biology and related disciplinesExample of use
local:NAL Thesaurus is used to select controlled vocabulary terms for subject indexing of AGRICOLA, PubAg and other databases.Methodology and provenance
Created with
otherAccrual periodicity
Updated annually by the National Agricultural Library (NAL)Community
Mailing list
Notes
Redesigned for the machine age as part of the Library's "NALT for the Machine Age" initiative, NALT 2024 is a state-of-the-art multischeme concept space with added structural features for enhanced scalability and machine readability.Content
- National Agricultural Library Thesaurus Animal Welfare Concepts
- "NALT AWIC", Animal Welfare concepts curated by NAL's Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC) staff. The inaugural NALT AWIC included 881 concepts, and was released in 2023., The NAL Agricultural Thesaurus (NALT) antecedent, the Agricultural-Biological Vocabulary was first published in August 1967 by the the National Agricultural Library for use in indexing and cataloging. In 2002, it was released online as the National Agricultural Library Thesaurus and Glossary, and became known as "NALT". The vocabulary has in-depth coverage of agriculture, biology, and related disciplines. The Spanish language version of NALT was first published in May 2007 under the Spanish language name "Tesauro Agrícola", and was created in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and Latin American agricultural institutions of the Agriculture Information and Documentation Service of the Americas (SIDALC). In 2022 NALT was redesigned as part of the Library's "NALT for the Machine Age" initiative and released as NALT Concept Space, a state-of-the-art multischeme semantic system with added features for expanded usage with tabular data, in addition to traditional text (indexing and cataloging) data. The semantic structure allows for multiple domain specific vocabularies within the NALT Concept Space, and is standardized for data interoperability, enhanced scalability, and machine readability. Inaugural NALT vocabularies included NALT Core, and NALT Full, with more domains to be added each year. "NALT AWIC" was first published 2023 containing 881 Animal Welfare concepts curated by NAL's Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC) staff.
- National Agricultural Library Thesaurus Core
- "NALT Core", a trim NALT subscheme vocabulary, released in 2022 with 14,196 of the most frequently used agricultural concepts, including 4,396 agriculturally important organisms (taxa), and structural updates for a lean and efficient machine readable agricultural knowledge base, ideally suited for automation, machine learning, and other artificial intelligence applications for knowledge management in the machine age.
- National Agricultural Library Thesaurus Taxonomic names
- "NALT Taxon", Taxonomic names have been a central use case for NALT over the years, with up to 75% of NALT concepts being taxonomical names at the initiation of the NALT for the Machine Age initiative. In 2023, the NALT Taxon vocabulary was released, and included 52,978 organisms (taxa) names important to agriculture., The NAL Agricultural Thesaurus (NALT) antecedent, the Agricultural-Biological Vocabulary was first published in August 1967 by the the National Agricultural Library for use in indexing and cataloging. In 2002, it was released online as the National Agricultural Library Thesaurus and Glossary, and became known as "NALT". The vocabulary has in-depth coverage of agriculture, biology, and related disciplines. The Spanish language version of NALT was first published in May 2007 under the Spanish language name "Tesauro Agrícola", and was created in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and Latin American agricultural institutions of the Agriculture Information and Documentation Service of the Americas (SIDALC). In 2022 NALT was redesigned as part of the Library's "NALT for the Machine Age" initiative and released as NALT Concept Space, a state-of-the-art multischeme semantic system with added features for expanded usage with tabular data, in addition to traditional text (indexing and cataloging) data. The semantic structure allows for multiple domain specific vocabularies within the NALT Concept Space, and is standardized for data interoperability, enhanced scalability, and machine readability. Inaugural NALT vocabularies included NALT Core, and NALT Full, with more domains to be added each year. "NALT Taxon" was first published in 2023, when it included 52,978 organism (taxa) names important to agriculture.