TS 9580

TS 9580 is a terminology standard that gathers the basic terms and definitions used for documentary languages in documentation and information work. Its subject is the naming and conceptual framework of information-organisation tools such as notations, links, classifications and thesauri. Standards of this kind reduce variation in how the same concept is described across sources and support a common language for bibliographic arrangement, indexing and information retrieval.

What documentary languages mean in practice

Documentary languages are controlled systems used where natural language alone is not precise enough for organising information. Classifications divide subjects into structured groups; notations express those groups through concise symbols; links indicate relationships between concepts; and thesauri help maintain consistent indexing through preferred terms, synonyms and hierarchical relationships. Together, these devices make it easier to represent documents and information units consistently and to retrieve them reliably.

Scope and technical value of the standard

The standard provides the terminology and definitions for these core concepts in documentation and information practice; it does not describe a specific software implementation, a particular classification scheme or a full system design. Issued in equivalence with ISO 5127-6:1983, it serves as a shared vocabulary that can reduce interpretation differences in cataloguing, information centre operations, archiving and document analysis. It is especially useful in environments where different institutions may use different names for similar organisational structures.