ResourcesThese items represent a core (although not definitive) list of resources for learning about taxonomies and related topics. The resources include books, journal articles, vendor white papers, and web sites. Much of the material is available on the web. However, in your search for good quality information that will be persuasive in large organizations, consider purchasing content from quality sources. You will find many more resources within The Taxonomy Guide. Also listed here are three communities which you can join to learn more and talk with people in the taxonomy field. Sections on this page Taxonomist's Bookshelf Classification Taxonomist's BookshelfThe following are a few key texts. Some have sample chapters online, or can be viewed in Google Books or Amazon. The Accidental Taxonomist, by Heather Hedden,
Information Today Inc (May 2010) Indispensable guide. Heather Hedden's page links to the Introduction and Chapter 1. From the introduction: "This book aims to explain what you need to know to be a good taxonomist rather than explain how to create a taxonomy, step-by step. Therefore the chapters are arranged in order of importance in terms of what you need to know, rather than in the project sequence for building a taxonomy."
Examines the assumptions about taxonomies and their construction,
considers their contribution to organizational effectiveness and
knowledge management, and provides a guide to the steps in a 'typical'
taxonomy project. There are preview excerpts at the companion website
and blog. Daniel Tunkelang was formerly Chief Scientist at Endeca, known for its guided navigation design for enterprise systems. His page about the book links to Chapter 7. You can also preview the book at Google Books. Search Patterns, by Peter Morville and Jeffery
Callender, O'Reilly (2010) An exceptional study of design patterns that are at play in search and discovery. It's not about taxonomies or classification, but does provide context about the search challenge.
Taxonomy SpecialistsJoseph Busch has been writing and speaking about taxonomies, metadata and automatic classification for several years. His company website, Taxonomy Strategies, has been a rich repository of his presentations and bibliography. In 2010 he moved his consulting practice into Project Performance Corporation, a large management consultancy firm in business management and technology. He and others blog about taxonomies in the PPC Blog,
Earley & Associates headed by Seth Earley is one of the premier consulting services on taxonomy and metadata, enterprise search and content management, Sharepoint, and semantic technologies. They conduct frequent webinars on these topics often free with registration. The Knowledge section of the website has a rich collection of whitepapers, articles, videos, and Presentations has slideshare copies of recent and past presentations. Tom Reamy is Chief Knowledge Architect of KAPS Group - standing for Knowledge Architecture Professional Services. Among its specialties are Taxonomy development, Meta Data schema, thesaurus, controlled vocabularies, Categorization software and integration, and Content Management. Mr Reamy speaks often and writes articles for the main trade magazines. These are listed on the KAPS Group Presentations page. Marjorie M.K. Hlava is President and Chairman of Access Innovations, responsible for the Data Harmony line of products for thesaurus, metadata, and taxonomies. Articles and presentations in the Library. As well the company has the TaxoDiary blog. Heather Hedden writes, speaks and seemingly sleeps taxonomies. She is associated with Earley and Associates, speaks at SLA and Taxonomy Bootcamp. Her website - Hedden Information Management - is a starting point to her book, The Accidental Taxonomist, and articles. Two of these articles are recommended in the next section.
Taxonomy ArticlesAfter the Dot-Bomb: Getting Web Information Retrieval Right
This Time by Marcia Bates, First Monday Volume 7, Number
7, July, 2002 -- Written by Marcia Bates, a long time expert in
information retrieval, this short article is a refreshing reminder
of the basics of information retrieval on the web. Search in Focus: Implementing a Taxonomy by Penny
Crosman, Intelligent Enterprise (Dec 1, 2006) - Outlines ways to
build taxonomies. Taxonomies for categorisation and organisation in Web sites
by Miquel Centelles, Hypertext.net, Number 3, May 2005 - Opens with
a review of the changing definition of taxonomy and proposes the
following: "Taxonomy is the type of controlled vocabulary where
all the terms are connected by means of any structural model (hierarchical,
tree, faceted, ...) and specially oriented to browsing, organisation
systems and search of contents of the web sites." Body of the
article looks at methods for building the taxonomy. [Available through
Internet Archive.] Unlocking Knowledge Assets: Chapter 6: Building Taxonomies
by Susan Conway and Char Sligar, Microsoft Learning (2002) "In this chapter we will explore the various types of taxonomies, what their purposes are, and how they fit in a larger ecosystem of content and people. We will also address the mechanics of building and structuring your own taxonomies: where to start, how to make use of your data, and how to plan for the long haul. Finally, we will look at some of the steps that go beyond searching and content management and how you can begin to measure the success and benefit of taxonomy management in your enterprise."
Better Living Through Taxonomies by Heather Hedden,
Digital Web Magazine. February 5, 2008 -- excellent introduction
to the nature and value of taxonomies. Short outline on how to build
them. Taxonomies and the Information User by Heather
Hedden, Information Outlook, December 2010. Available from Free
Library.
Taxonomy Development for Knowledge Management
by Mary Whittaker, presentation at World Library and Information
Congress: 74th IFLA GENERAL CONFERENCE AND COUNCIL (July 24, 2008) "This paper focuses on the processes associated with taxonomy development, including how to determine the requirements, how to identify concepts, and how to develop a draft taxonomy. It also covers techniques for validating a taxonomy, processes for incorporating changes within a taxonomy, applying a taxonomy to content, and methods for maintaining a taxonomy over time. "
Taxonomists' Gathering PlacesTaxonomy Community of Practice (TaxoCop) was founded
by Seth Earley as a forum to communicate ideas, techniques and experiences
in deriving, applying and maintaining taxonomies. There is a wiki
space - - and a Yahoo
Groups Forum. Members include practitioners of various backgrounds
and responsibilities: consultants, taxonomists, indexers, content
managers, knowledge management professionals, librarians, and others.
This is a unique place on the web to carry on a discussion with
your taxonomy peers on the practicalities of implementation. SLA Taxonomy Division is a vibrant group of SLA
members who work with taxonomies or have a strong interest in content
organization. Their wiki site has resources, announcements, and
discussion. Some parts are open to all. Membership in the SLA Taxonomy
Division and a wiki account is required to access the Bulletin. The American Society of Indexing has a Taxonomies &
Controlled Vocabularies Special Interest Group. This is
"a networking and educational forum for those in the indexing
profession who are involved in creating or editing taxonomies, thesauri,
or controlled vocabularies used for indexing." The site provides
some background on what taxonomists do and supplies a variety of
resources and articles (ending around 2008). ClassificationThe Role of Classification in Knowledge Representation
and Discovery Barbara H. Kwasnik, Library Trends, vol.
48, No.1, Summer, 1999, pp 22-47 -- A full description of the different
classification structures and their strengths and weaknesses. A step-by-step approach to web classification design.
"Learn how you can effectively design a robust, reader-friendly
web classification" by Gerry McGovern, October, 2002 -- An
in-depth analysis of web classification techniques. McGovern’s
web site contains a section on subject classification in a web environment.
The Organization of Information: 3rd edition.
By Arlene G.Taylor and Daniel N. Joudrey, Libraries Unlimited (2009) Wynar’s Introduction to Cataloging and Classification:
Revised Ninth Edition. By Arlene G Taylor and Bohdan S. Wynar, Librarires
Unlimited (2004).
Content Management Literally the bible of content management, this book is an indispensable tool for your reference shelf. In Boiko you can see where and how taxonomies relate to the other million things that go into organizing and managing digital content. The First edition is online for free viewing - take the link from the page about the Second Edition. Search Inside 2nd edition at Amazon. Boiko's website is
http://www.metatorial.com
Taxonomy’s Role in Content Management by
Thomas Pack. EContent: Digital Content Strategies and Resources
March, 2002
Information Architecture
"Second Edition introduces the core concepts of information architecture: organizing web site content so that it can be found, designing website interaction so that it's pleasant to use, and creating an interface that is easy to understand."
One of the best books on the details of organizing content on a web site, especially in structuring content using taxonomies and controlled vocabulary. This book in combination with Boiko’s Content Management Bible will always put you in the know. Ambient Findability by Peter Morville, O'Reilly
(2005)
Controlled Vocabulary and ThesaurusConstruction of Controlled Vocabularies: A Primer
by Marcia Lee Zeng -- A useful tutorial on the basics of constructing
a controlled vocabulary. The author is a professor at the School
of Library Science, Kent State University. Introductory Tutorial on Thesaurus Construction
by Tim Craven, University of Western Ontario (Jan 25, 2008) NISO American National Standard Guidelines for the Construction,
Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabulary,
NISO Press, 2005. Available from NISO Standards in pdf.
-- Essential reference and guide. [Note: The 2005 edition replaces ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2003 Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri ] Thesaurus Construction: A Practical Guide by Aitchison, Jean, Gilchrist, Alan and Bawden, David 4th ed. London: Aslib IMI, 2000 A practical guide to the construction of thesauri for use in information retrieval, written by leading experts in the field. Includes: planning and design; vocabulary control; specificity and compound terms; structure and relationships; auxiliary retrieval devices; multilingual thesauri; AAT Compound Term Rules. The US ANSI/NISO Z39.19 Thesaurus construction standard is also covered. Still considered the best text for developing a thesaurus. Available through Amazon.com.
General ResourcesTaxonomy Watch - companion blog for The Taxonomy
Guide - curated by Gwen Harris - picks up news items and articles
concerning classification, taxonomies, software, and sometimes semantic
web from a selection of blogs and newsletters. Earley and Associates Blog - has several writers
covering topics from Content Management, Tagging and Folksonomies,
through to User Interfaces. daniela barbosa chitchatting about information delivery
- variety of topics including taxonomies, tagging, semantic web Info Design - Understanding by Design - curated
by Peter Bogaards - an excellent blog that harvests web materials
on information architecture, user inteface design, metadata, information
design. AIIM is a non-profit organization to help members
and the public to manage information. It has come to be known as
the enterprise content management association and provides expertise
and training in document management, content management, enterprise
2.0 and much more. The Community
tab leads to blogs and wikis. KMWorld, one of the Information Today publications,
reports on content, document and knowledge management technologies.
Its website has the online version of the magazine, white papers,
several research centers (including content management, enterprise
search, and knowledge management). Occasionally there are articles
on taxonomies or classification. Enterprise Search Center specializes in enterprise
search technologies. The site has topic centers for classification
and taxonomies, content management, entity extraction, and faceted
navigation. It delivers the annual Enterprise Search Summit conference.
It is one of several services from Information Today.
Page Update: February 12, 2011 |
Search the WebSearch Google using combinations of the words -- intranet enterprise corporate taxonomies -- and others that pertain to your needs. |
Organising
Information: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness
by Patrick Lambe, Chandos UK, 2007 
Joseph
Busch and Dave Clarke on Taxonomies - Five video podcasts
from the 2007 iKMS conference by two of the leading taxonomy experts:
Joseph Busch of Taxonomy Strategies, and Dave Clarke of Dow Jones
and founder of Taxonomy Warehouse. Videos were captured by Patrick
Lambe and can be viewed directly from this blog entry.
Content
Management Bible by Bob Boiko, Hungry Minds, 2nd Edition, 2004
Information
Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, 2nd Edition, by
Christina Wodtke, New Riders Publishing, 2009 
Information
Architecture for the World Wide Web - Rosenfeld, Louis and Peter
Morville 3rd edition O’Reilly, 2006. Available as an e-book
through