In my last blog post, I discussed the need for mentoring taxonomists and mentioned that I had volunteered to lead the new mentoring committee of the Taxonomy Division of SLA (Special Libraries Association) and establish its mentoring program (http://taxonomy.sla.org/get-involved/mentor). While some of the mentoring activities are available to members only,…
The Accidental Taxonomist Blog
Mentoring Taxonomists: The Need
As explained in Chapter 2 of my book on an introduction to taxonomy creation, The Accidental Taxonomist, the majority of taxonomists did not intend to be taxonomists, and they come to the field by accident from various backgrounds. What this means is that most people who find they want to…
The Accidental Taxonomy Consultant
It’s well known that most taxonomists become taxonomists by accident, as the title of my book attests. As I look back on my career, I see this progression continuing one step further in accidentally becoming a taxonomy consultant.Not all consultants are accidental, though. Bright college graduates in the social sciences…
Deviating from Taxonomy Standards
In my last blog post, I suggested that enterprise taxonomies need not follow the standards for controlled vocabularies and thesuari (ANSI/NISO Z39.19 guidelines and ISO 25964-1) to the same extent as “traditional” discipline taxonomies and thesauri. I say this cautiously, though. Standards should not be ignored for any taxonomy, but…
Enterprise Taxonomies vs. Traditional Taxonomies
A book that I have been reading (Structures for Organizing Knowledge: Exploring Taxonomies, Ontologies, and Other Schemas, by June Abbas, 2010) got me thinking about the comparison between corporate/enterprise taxonomies and other “traditional taxonomies”. I found it intriguing that Abbas presents corporate or “professional” taxonomies in the same chapter on…
Digital Asset Management and Taxonomies
Earlier this month I attended a conference on digital asset management (DAM) for the first time: Henry Stewart DAM in New York, May 10-11. It revealed to me that the field of digital asset management is definitely an area where taxonomies are being applied and could be more even extensively…
Faceted Search vs. Faceted Browse
If you have considered different kinds of taxonomies, you have undoubtedly come across the faceted type. You can remember what a facet is by thinking of “face,” as in a multi-faceted diamond. Other names for facet include dimension, aspect, or attribute. It could be the set of characteristics that describe…
Taxonomy Standards
I’ve written book reviews before, but recently a journal asked me to review a standard. It was ISO 25964-1 Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies, Part 1: Thesauri for information retrieval, which was published in 2011 by the International Organization for Standards. I was pleased to have the opportunity,…
Business Taxonomies
It’s difficult enough for professionals to come to a consensus on the definition of “taxonomy.” As for “business taxonomy,” it’s even worse. There are varying ideas of taxonomy, varying ideas of “business,” and varying ideas on what the connection should be, in addition to the scope and purpose. Is it…
Taxonomy Training Workshops
I give a workshop in creating taxonomies in two formats, full-day in person and online. The question sometimes comes up from prospective participants as to the differences. Since a full-day onsite workshop is coming up soon, this would be a good time to address the similarities and differences. Both workshops…