ResourcesThese items represent a core list of resources for learning about taxonomies. The resources include books, journal articles, vendor white papers, and web sites. Much of the material is available on the web. Some of the material needs to be purchased from analysts, journal publishers or bookstores. 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. Sections on this page Classification ClassificationAutomatic Classification: Moving to the Mainstream
by Blumberg, Robert and Shaku Atre. DM Review, April, 2003
Information Intelligence: Content Classification and the
Enterprise Taxonomy Practice Delphi Group, June 2004 --
This report focuses on research in the areas of taxonomy and classification.
Very well written and comprehensive (74 pages). Contains descriptions
of six technology vendors. [Must register to see list of whitepapers.]
The 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 Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization.
(Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing) By Elaine Svenonius.
(2000). Search inside the book at Amazon
The Organization of Information: 2nd edition.
By Arlene G.Taylor (2003) Book is available from Amazon
Wynar’s Introduction to Cataloging and Classification:
Revised Ninth Edition 2004. By Arlene G Taylor. Available from Amazon
Content ManagementContent Critical by McGovern, Gerry and Rob Norton.
Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2001 -- Includes highly detailed,
practical advice about what it takes to build a professional, content-oriented
website, including classification, navigation, search and
content layout. It will show you how to organize your publishing
team and how to create a Web publishing strategy. One of the few
sources of information on the relationship and interaction between
classification and navigation on a web site.
Information Architecture
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) His company site is Semantic Studios http://www.semanticstudios.com
Taxonomy’s Role in Content Management by
Thomas Pack. EContent: Digital Content Strategies and Resources
March, 2002
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.
TaxonomyAfter 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.
Taxonomy Strategies is an information management
consultancy headed by Joseph Busch. It works with taxonomies, metadata,
and automatic classification. It has a Taxonomy
Strategies Blog and many articles and presentations about taxonomy
building. One of these is Taxonomy 1-2-3 tutorial by Joseph
Busch - Presentation to Enterprise Search Summit, May 2007, New
York. This was a half-day workshop covered building taxonomies,
the business case, taxonomy and search, taxonomy ROI, maintenance.
Slides are rich with illustration, charts and cogent text - a course
in itself.
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.]
Search in Focus: Implementing a Taxonomy by Penny
Crosman, Intelligent Enterprise (Dec 1, 2006) - Outlines ways to
build taxonomies.
Taxonomy Community of Practice Seth Earley, an
information consultant, has set up a taxonomy community of practice
as a forum to communicate ideas, techniques and experiences in deriving,
applying and maintaining taxonomies. 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. To join go to http://earley.com
TaxoTips website is maintained by Bob Doyle to
complement Seth Earley’s Taxonomy Community of Practice (See
previous entry.) Bob Doyle is Editor-In-Chief of CMS Watch and Contributing
Editor to EContent Magazine. His site has a few taxonomy FAQs, taxonomy
resources such as books and web sources, taxonomy tools, a taxonomy
glossary, and names of leading US taxonomy consultants. It is not
a systematic collection of taxonomy information but is useful for
gleaning bits of the total picture.
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.
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. "
General ResourcesCMSWatch evaluates content management technologies
covering several topic areas with reports and commentary. Taxonomies
come up often. Enterprise Search Center specializes in enterprise
search technologies. The site has topic centers for classification
and taxonomies, content management, entity extraction, and faceted
navigation. Annually it publishes an Enterprise Search Sourcebook
and delivers the Enterprise Search Summit conference. It is one
of several services from Information Today. Inside Knowledge (formerly KM Magazine) Published
by the Ark Group in the UK this journal has published excellent
articles on taxonomies. Access to most of the articles is by paid
subscription only but a few articles in the current issue may be
read freely.
Page Update: October 26, 2009 |
Search the WebSearch Google using combinations of the words -- intranet enterprise corporate taxonomies -- and others that pertain to your needs. |
Content
Management Bible by Bob Boiko, Hungry Minds, 2nd Edition, 2004
-- 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. 
Information
Architecture: Blueprints for the Web by Christina Wodtke,
New Riders Publishing, 2002 -- Introduces the core concepts of information
architecture: organizing content so it can be found, designing interaction
so it is easy and pleasurable, and designing an interface that is
easy to use. Detailed review of the book at 
Information
Architecture for the World Wide Web - Rosenfeld, Louis and Peter
Morville 3rd edition O’Reilly, 2006. Available as an e-book
through 
Organising
Information: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness
by Patrick Lambe, Chandos UK, 2007 - 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. Preview excerpts
at the companion website and blog.
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.