Following is an annotated list of the resources we used to develop the terms of our thesaurus. We were careful to include resources published outside of the United States, to provide a variety of spelling and terms, in recognition of the information needs of the broad potential audience of a web-based e-zine. (For instance, see the different spellings for “traveller” used by Gilford and by Warren.)

Print Resources

Bozman, J., Hults, B., Jones, R., et. al. (1998). Frommer's '98 Europe from $50 a day: The ultimate guide to low-cost travel. New York, NY: Macmillan USA.

• The title of this book suggests it would contain information on what to bring along for low-cost travelling. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This resource proved to be a very poor source for gathering terms for our thesaurus. Although appropriate terms were located within the book, they were scattered throughout, and generally only mentioned in passing, rather than specifically being referred to as packing essentials. No section of this book was dedicated to packing, which is surprising since other sources very similar in nature addressed this issue quite comprehensively. A definite thumbs-down as a source for terminology mining.

• This book was highly useful for identifying potential terms for our thesaurus. The book is designed to be an all-encompassing how-to-pack guide, rather than aiming at a particular type of traveller, such as backpackers or the business traveller. Despite this, we found this a useful resource for finding terms, as items required for travel are not necessarily limited to the type of travel being planned. Unfortunately this book did not provide a back-of-the book index, which could have been useful in locating terms more quickly.

• Written specifically for the first-time visitor to Europe, this book was an excellent source for identifying terms. It features a chapter entirely dedicated to what to (and what not to) pack, thus providing a useful source of terms for our thesaurus. Perhaps the most useful feature of this book is that each term is accompanied by a brief paragraph explaining what the item is and why the particular item may, or may not, be needed for a trip to Europe. Finally, a back-of-the-book index was included, which also assisted in locating useful terms.

• While it is not specifically aimed at students or backpackers, the author of this book attempts to provide a packing list for travellers who seek to carry on the plane what they need, and avoid the hassles and delays associated with checked-in luggage. This makes it a useful resource for our subject, since a major concern of backpacking travellers is size and weight. This book offers an entire 25-page chapter to “Travel gear” – what to include besides clothing. Annoyingly, it has no back-of-the-book index.

• This picture-packed resource is aimed at the backpacking traveller who intends to camp and “rough it” around the world. One chapter is devoted to Equipment and Techniques, including a useful section on cooking and water equipment, and necessities. The back-of-the-book index provides some helpful hierarchies in listing different necessities and types of equipment – for instance, under compass is listed the prismatic type and protractor type.

• Because this publication is aimed at those on a severe budget, it is ideal for student use. While only a few pages are devoted to equipment and accessories, the discussion is extensive, with broad coverage of optional items to pack for a backpacking travel trip. Of particular use was the discussion of the various types of documentation that could be included. In addition, because this is not a North American publication, it offered some alternative terms that could be included as non-preferred terms (such as “torch” for flashlight). The back-of-the-book index was not useful at all, as its coverage was far too broad for our purposes.

• This resource provides a comprehensive discussion of what a backpacking traveller should include in his/her pack. There is also a handy packing checklist, which was  very useful for our purposes. Because this book is aimed specifically at travelling with a backpack, rather than hiking with one, the equipment list is focused primarily on travel rather than camping needs. The author also offered interesting justifications for including or not including equipment – not particularly relevant to creating a thesaurus, but interesting nonetheless! The back-of-the-book index was of some use, but proved not to be as useful as expected for locating non-preferred terms.

• Written by recognised European budget-travel guru Rick Steves, this book proved to be an ideal source for terms for items useful for the budget traveller. The book provided several pages of listed items the budget traveller should bring along, including a checklist of essential items. Making this source especially useful for our thesaurus was the fact the author made note of synonyms for the items whenever he thought it was necessary.

• This resource is clearly aimed at a travel audience that is older than our target audience of students. However, it does feature a chapter titled “Gizmos and gadgets,” which rather says it all. This section provided us with an interesting list of accessories that were generally not included in the equipment lists provided in the other resources. While it made brief mention of “old stand-bys” like a travel alarm clock and a sewing kit, most of this chapter was devoted to name-brand items that travellers might be interested in packing, such as luggage alarms and portable door locks. In the end, we opted to exclude many of these accessories as being beyond the scope of our target collection and audience; however, we were able to include some of the terms for more general equipment as they provided a Canadian lexicon. Its back-of-the-book index was not particularly helpful.

Web resources

Gearreview.com. (2002). GearReview.com, reviews on stoves, tents, packs, GPS, and more! Retrieved January 25, 2002 from http://www.gearreview.com/
 

• This is a comprehensive site that reviews camping, hiking and general outdoor equipment. It features articles that discuss various pieces of equipment, which helped us identify certain preferred terms. It is a well-organized site that contributed to the creation of our hierarchy; for example, the article on multitools includes categorized lists of different types of multitools. In addition to the reviews of equipment this site includes a “Gear List” section, which has various lists of recommended equipment based on activity. While its focus is on outdoors and adventure activity, it was certainly relevant and useful for the creation of our thesaurus.

Eurobackpack.com. (2002). Retrieved January 25, 2002 from http://geocities.com/looroo_99/eurobakpak.html

• This backpacker’s guide to Europe has a variety of articles and categorized links, which were particularly useful for finding both preferred and non-preferred terms for our thesaurus. While the site was somewhat light on equipment or gear lists, it does feature articles on information such as passports and travel documents that were helpful for that part of our thesaurus.

• This is another site focusing on backpacking in Europe. For our purposes, the “Packing Tips and Lists” section was the most helpful part of this webs ite. The packing list features links to a commercial site (http://www.magellans.com) where people could buy the equipment under discussion, which perhaps cast doubt over the site’s objectivity but was quite useful in collecting the terms for our thesaurus. In addition, as this is a Canadian site, it was helpful in helping us determine preferred (i.e. Canadian) terms.

• A site for North American travellers to Europe, this site includes a packing list, which focused on what a backpacking traveller needs when staying in a European hostel. As hostels are an important type of accommodation for backpacking students, this packing list and other articles on the site provided us with a good vocabulary of terms.