Multilingual Subject Access: The Linking Approach of MACS

TheMACS (Multilingual access to subjects) project is one of the many projects that are currently exploring solutions to multilingual subject access to online catalogs. Its strategy is to develop a Web-based link and search interface through which equivalents between three Subject Heading Languages–SWD/RSWK (Schlagwortnormdatei/Regeln für den Schlagwortkatalog) for German, RAMEAU (Répertoire d’Autorité- Matière Encyclopédique et Alphabétique Unifié) for French, and LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) for English–can be created and maintained, and by which users can access online databases in the language of their choice. Factors that have led to this approach will be examined and the MACS linking strategy will be explained. The trend to using mapping or linking strategies between different controlled vocabularies to create multilingual access challenges the traditional view of the multilingual thesaurus. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]