SRS Research Information System Thesaurus

"The SRS Research Information System Thesaurus was empirically derived from the language of reports of research supported by the Social and Rehabilitation Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The subject domain common to SRS researchers came to be described during the course of the thesaurus-­building project as 'the individualized effects of societal dysfunctions and the attempts made to understand and correct them.' To clarify the meaning of societal dysfunctions, they must be seen in perspective with normal societal functions; therefore, the domain of this thesaurus is the total social system, but with emphasis on social dysfunctions. The purpose of this thesaurus is to control the language used to index and retrieve documents of interest to SRS and the personnel it serves. At present the indexing so controlled is the SRS Research Information System Index. Searchers using that document need to be guided by the thesaurus. SRS hopes, however, that the effort expended to study the SRS language and to set it forth, showing interrelationships among terms, will be of use also to those interested in such things as social science language per se, the scope of activities of SRS, and the categories of clients served."