The main part of this document draws considerably from the Guide to Indexing and Cataloging with the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (Getty Art History Information Program) and is intended to be a set of guidelines for the selection of indexing terms for resources to be included in the ADAM Database. The ADAM Project has agreed to use the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) as its main terminology resource for this purpose, and therefore, this set of guidelines also provides advice on how to use the AAT in term selection and transposition to the ADAM database.

What is indexing?

Indexing is part of the cataloguing procedure where a given resource is described in order to facilitate its retrieval by the end user. Indexing is the selection of particular words that capture the essence of a resource and its contents. Indexing terms are also referred to as keywords.