Building a large thesaurus for information retrieval

Information retrieval systems that support searching of large textual databases are typically accessed by trained search intermediaries who provide assistance to end users in bridging the gap between the languages of authors and inquirers. We are building a thesaurus in the form of a large semantic network to support interactive query expansion and search by end users. Our lexicon is being built by analyzing and merging data from several large English dictionaries; testing of its value for retrieval is with the SMART and CODER systems.