Taxonomies and thesauri are characterized by having hierarchical relationships linking their terms. The associative relationship (related concepts, Related Term, or RT), on the other hand, is a fundamental feature of thesauri, but it is merely an optional feature of taxonomies. An over-simplistic distinction between taxonomies and thesauri is the presence…
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Taxonomies vs. Ontologies
The question often comes up: how are taxonomies and ontologies different? While there are some short simple answers (such as: taxonomies are hierarchies, and ontologies are semantic networks), it is understandable that the distinction is not that clear. There is considerable overlap. Ontologies may contain taxonomies, and taxonomies can be…
Taxonomy Definition
I usually explain that a taxonomy is a structured kind of controlled vocabulary, which is list of terms (or concepts) usually used to tag content to aid in its retrieval. The structure can be hierarchical, faceted, or a combination. Other people have defined taxonomies for a general audience in more…
Taxonomies to Bridge Silos
There is increasing interest in organizations to “break down silos” of content and data. Silos may be different software applications, distinct web or intranet content, or merely different computer drives and folders. The goal is to enable search and retrieval across content that is stored in different content/document management systems…
The Accidental Taxonomist, Third Edition
The third edition of my book, The Accidental Taxonomist, will officially be published November 7, but discount preorders are now being accepted for both print and ebook, and I just received advance printed copies, so now is a good time to talk about. Details of the book are on its website. For those who…
Taxonomies and Semantics
How are taxonomies related to “semantics”? I considered this question, as the latest conference I participated was SEMANTiCS, the European conference of semantic technologies, which took place this year in Vienna, Austria, September 13 – 15. Topics presented and discussed in this conference included ontologies, knowledge graphs, semantic models and…
SKOS-XL for Taxonomies
I recently posted about SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System). If you have read anything about SKOS, then you might have come across SKOS-XL (SKOS Extension for Labels) and wondered what that is. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released its recommendations for SKOS and SKOS-XL at the same time in 2009…
Taxonomy Challenges Discussed at SLA Conference
When it comes to conferences dealing with the subject of taxonomy creation, implementation, and maintenance, without a doubt Taxonomy Boot Camp and Taxonomy Boot Camp London are by far the best conferences for their content, speakers, and networking opportunities. However, there are other conferences that have sessions on taxonomies. The…
SKOS Taxonomies
Over the 26 years that I have been involved in controlled vocabularies, thesauri, and taxonomies, the biggest change I have seen in the field is the adoption of SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) as a schema model and standard. If you are creating taxonomies exclusively within a single system (such…
A Taxonomist Community
Taxonomists and others whose work involves taxonomies have not been a unified professional community. Taxonomy development work is interdisciplinary, spanning different specializations, and different organizational functions, including the following: Information services taxonomies and thesauri, developed by those with a background in library/information science, thesauri, and cataloging, and possibly indexing Product/ecommerce…