Better Search Through Query Expansion Using Controlled Vocabularies and Apache Solr

This article describes how the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) modified its Solr-based discovery interface to improve recall and enable end users to benefit from the power of their in-house controlled vocabularies. These modifications automatically expand the query generated by any search term that matches their controlled vocabulary to include all related alternate and narrower terms. For example, if a user enters Ohio, that search will retrieve the record for an arrowhead found in Cincinnati (a narrower term of Ohio) even if that record does not include the term Ohio.