Online Workshop: Taxonomies and Controlled Vocabularies

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Hedden Information Management

Taxonomies and Controlled Vocabularies
Self-Paced Online Course for Corporate Groups

Five self-paced lessons, online at any time (no live component)

Workshop Description and Outline
Workshop Basics
Costs and Registration

Workshop Description

Taxonomies are structured sets of terms used for tagging or categorizing content. They are used in a wide variety of applications ranging from document indexing, digital asset management, enterprise content management, commercial product categorization, online news service interfaces, and web site information architecture.

This course provides both a basic introduction to taxonomies, discusses best practices for creating terms and relationships, and provides some practice to start working on taxonomies and thesauri. This course also includes exclusive student trial access to some taxonomy management systems.

Workshop Outline

Lesson 1: Introduction to taxonomies
Types of taxonomies and controlled vocabularies, their definitions, and uses. Links to examples on the Web will be included for various types.

Definitions of taxonomy, controlled vocabularies, thesauri, etc.
Types and applications of taxonomies and controlled vocabularies
Controlled vocabulary displays and organization: A-Z, hierarchies, categories, and facets

Lesson 2: Software for creating taxonomies
An overview of the various software tools to help create web thesaurus-type taxonomies and descriptions of several single-user desktop programs. Students are encouraged to download at least one free or demo software package of their choice to use for practice thesaurus creation in lessons 3 and 4.

Over view of the different kinds of software tools
MultiTes (for Windows PCs)
Cognatrix (for MacOS)
Synaptica (web-based)
Data Harmony (multi-platform)
Other large-scale systems

Lesson 3: Hierarchical structure and term relationships
Best practices for structuring a taxonomy or thesaurus according to recognized standards

Broader/narrower relationships
Related/associated relationships and complex variations (ontologies)
Issues in determining top level terms/facets and issues deciding on hierarchy depth and broadness

Lesson 4: Wording of terms and their variants
Deciding how to name preferred terms and non-preferred terms in the controlled vocabulary

Issues in wording terms (style and format, pre- vs. post-coordination, homonyms)
Coming up with variants/non-preferred terms
Differences in term names and variants needed for human vs. automated indexing; and for thesaurus vs. hierarchy vs. facets.

Lesson 5: Concluding topics and issues

Processes for taxonomy development and implementation
Taxonomy governance (ownership and maintenance)
Folksonomies or social tagging
Resources

Workshop Basics

Lessons: Lesson texts are comprised of a set of three to six web pages, one for each chapter of the lesson. Each lesson has links, and some have associated graphics of screenshots. It is not necessary to go through an entire lesson at one sitting, but each chapter page is designed to be read at one sitting. The lessons and chapters vary in length, depending on the topic. The intended pace is one lesson per week, but you may proceed faster or slower

Exercises/Assignments: Most lessons have assignments. Although you are not required to submit the assignments, you are welcome to submit them as e-mail attachments to the instructor. Questions to the instructor are welcome at any time.

Discussion: With a group of three or more, a shared e-mail mailing list can be used for discussion and questions of common interest will be answered by the instructor to the group.

Software: Special software does not need to be purchased to complete the workshop, but students should download a free demo version of one or more of the software tools discussed in lesson 2.

Readings: The required reading is: ANSI/NISO Z39.19 (2005) Guidelines for Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies, which will be made available as a freely downloadable pdf.

Other recommended, but not required, books are:

Aitchison, J., Gilchrist, A. & Bawden, D. (2000). Thesaurus construction and use: a practical manual (4th ed.). Chicago, IL, USA: Fitzroy Dearborn.
Lambe, Patrick. (2007). Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness. Oxford, England: Chandos Publishing.
Stewart, Darin L. (2008) Building Enterprise Taxonomies. Portland, OR: Mokita Press.

Links to additional articles on the Web are provided within each lesson.

Hours Expected: The number of hours put in depends on the extent that you work on a taxonomy project of your own and how much optional reading you want to do. Past students have put in from 2 to 8 hours per lesson, with 5 hours per lesson being the average.

Costs and Registration

Registration $195 per individual participant plus a $75 registration fee per group. There is a minimum of two participants in a group.

Please complete the registration form (Word doc), which may be e-mailed or faxed.
Complete both pages and send payment, or complete the first page only and request an invoice and complete the second page (participant signatures) later.

Full pre-payment is required.

Make checks, payable in U.S. dollars, out to "Hedden Information Management."

Pay by credit card (via PayPal). Select the number of students from the drop-down menu and click on the "Buy Now" Button.

Electronic funds transfer is accepted from U.S. government agencies and government contractors. Hedden Information Management is registered as a small business and a woman-owned business with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) system. Please let us know what information you require, such as Cage Code and Tax ID number.