Browsing A-Z: main thesaurus, candidate terms and rejected terms

This help page explains how to browse the UK Archival Thesaurus by moving through alphabetical lists of UKAT's terms. It covers the following parts of the website:

• Main thesaurus: browse A-Z
• Candidate terms
• Rejected terms

These pages relate to the way in which terms submitted to UKAT are edited. Submissions are evaluated by the project's Editor using an editing methodology approved by the project's Advisory Panel (the report setting out this methodology can be downloaded from the Downloads page). Initially, all submissions have the status of 'candidate' terms. The terms and any associated relationships are then edited, after which those which remain have the status of 'pending' while feedback is sought from the project's Advisory Panel. Following this period of consultation, any final edits are made, and the status of the remaining terms changes from pending to 'approved'. Terms which are rejected at any stage in the process have the status of 'rejected'.

Pending and approved terms appear in the Main thesaurus: browse A-Z lists. Candidate terms appear separately in the Candidate terms lists, while rejected terms appear in the lists of Rejected terms. You can also browse pending and approved terms By hierarchy. Note that UKAT's Advanced search facility allows you to search for terms by their editing status, and to search all terms regardless of status.

Browsing UKAT is probably most useful if you want to get a sense of the overall contents of the thesaurus, and the terms which have been submitted and rejected. If you are looking for a specific term, we recommend that you use the Advanced search facility instead. Other help pages are available which explain how to Search UKAT and how to Browse by hierarchy.

(1) To start searching, select the part of UKAT which you want to browse (main thesaurus, candidate terms, rejected terms) from the UKAT home page or the Thesaurus home page. You can also browse the main thesaurus by selecting 'Browse A-Z' from the UKAT main menu (the blue bar at the top of each page on UKAT's website, apart from the home page).

(2) From the row of letters of the alphabet on the following page, select the letter where you want to start browsing.

(3) You will then be presented with a list of the terms in UKAT which begin with the selected letter, listed in alphabetical order. The box at the right-hand side of the page allows you to navigate within the letter group. Each letter group is divided into subgroups based on the first one or two letters of the term: e.g. 'A-Ad', 'Ad-Ag', 'Ag-An' etc. Selecting a two-letter subgroup will take you to the start of that subgroup. Each two-letter subgroup, in turn, is broken down into further subgroups based on the first three or four letters of the term (four being the maximum). For example, selecting the two letter sub-group 'Ad-Ag' would take you to the start of that subgroup, and open up links to further subgroups: 'Ado-Adu', 'Adu-Aer', 'Agri-Agri', etc.

The 'Next' and 'Prev' links allow you to move to the next and previous pages in the list for that letter group, respectively. The figures at the top of the page indicate your position within the list: e.g. 'Displaying 1 - 20 of 269 for this letter' means that there are 269 terms in the letter group, and you are looking at the first 20 terms.

(4) Each term links to its main display, which gives full details of the term (see the Main term display help page for further information). Non-preferred terms indicate the preferred term or terms which should be used: e.g. 'Young persons USE Youth'.

(5) To move to the start of a different letter group, select another letter from the row of letters at the top of the page.