The Taxobook – History, Theories, and Concepts of Knowledge Organization
Part 1 of a 3-Part Series

Marjorie M.K.Hlava
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02287-6

Softcover Book USD 37.99
ISBN 978-3-031-01159-7

eBook USD 29.99
978-3-031-02287-6

Published: 31 May 2022

Pages: 56

Abstract

This is the first volume in a series about creating and maintaining taxonomies and their practical applications, especially in search functions. In Book 1 (The Taxobook: History, Theories, and Concepts of Knowledge Organization), the author introduces the very foundations of classification, starting with the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, as well as Theophrastus and the Roman Pliny the Elder. They were first in a line of distinguished thinkers and philosophers to ponder the organization of the world around them and attempt to apply a structure or framework to that world. The author continues by discussing the works and theories of several other philosophers from Medieval and Renaissance times, including Saints Aquinas and Augustine, William of Occam, Andrea Cesalpino, Carl Linnaeus, and René Descartes. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, James Frederick Ferrier, Charles Ammi Cutter, and Melvil Dewey contributed greatly to the theories of classification systems and knowledge organization. Cutter and Dewey, especially, created systems that are still in use today. Chapter 8 covers the contributions of Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan, who is considered by many to be the “father of modern library science.” He created the concept of faceted vocabularies, which are widely used—even if they are not well understood—on many e-commerce websites. Following the discussions and historical review, the author has included a glossary that covers all three books of this series so that it can be referenced as you work your way through the second and third volumes. The author believes that it is important to understand the history of knowledge organization and the differing viewpoints of various philosophers—even if that understanding is only that the differing viewpoints simply exist. Knowing the differing viewpoints will help answer the fundamental questions: Why do we want to build taxonomies? How do we build them to serve multiple points of view?

The Taxobook – Principles and Practices of Building Taxonomies
Part 2 of a 3-Part Series

Marjorie M.K.Hlava
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02288-3

Softcover Book USD 54.99
ISBN 978-3-031-01160-3

eBook  USD 39.99
ISBN 978-3-031-02288-3

Published: 31 May 2022

Pages: 140

ABSTRACT

This book outlines the basic principles of creation and maintenance of taxonomies and thesauri. It also provides step by step instructions for building a taxonomy or thesaurus and discusses the various ways to get started on a taxonomy construction project. Often, the first step is to get management and budgetary approval, so I start this book with a discussion of reasons to embark on the taxonomy journey. From there I move on to a discussion of metadata and how taxonomies and metadata are related, and then consider how, where, and why taxonomies are used. Information architecture has its cornerstone in taxonomies and metadata. While a good discussion of information architecture is beyond the scope of this work, I do provide a brief discussion of the interrelationships among taxonomies, metadata, and information architecture. Moving on to the central focus of this book, I introduce the basics of taxonomies, including a definition of vocabulary control and why it is so important, how indexing and tagging relate to taxonomies, a few of the types of tagging, and a definition and discussion of post- and pre-coordinate indexing. After that I present the concept of a hierarchical structure for vocabularies and discuss the differences among various kinds of controlled vocabularies, such as taxonomies, thesauri, authority files, and ontologies. Once you have a green light for your project, what is the next step? Here I present a few options for the first phase of taxonomy construction and then a more detailed discussion of metadata and markup languages. I believe that it is important to understand the markup languages (SGML and XML specifically, and HTML to a lesser extent) in relation to information structure, and how taxonomies and metadata feed into that structure. After that, I present the steps required to build a taxonomy, from defining the focus, collecting and organizing terms, analyzing your vocabulary for even coverage over subject areas, filling in gaps, creating relationships between terms, and applying those terms to your content. Here I offer a cautionary note: don’t believe that your taxonomy is “done!” Regular, scheduled maintenance is an important—critical, really—component of taxonomy construction projects. After you’ve worked through the steps in this book, you will be ready to move on to integrating your taxonomy into the workflow of your organization. This is covered in Book 3 of this series.

The Taxobook Applications, Implementation, and Integration in Search
Part 3 of a 3-Part Series

Marjorie M.K.Hlava
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02290-6

Softcover Book USD 54.99
ISBN978-3-031-01162-7

eBook USD 39.99
ISBN 978-3-031-02290-6

Published: 01 June 2022

Pages:130

Abstract

This book is the third of a three-part series on taxonomies and covers putting your taxonomy into use in as many ways as possible to maximize retrieval for your users. Chapter 1 suggests several items to research and consider before you start your implementation and integration process. It explores the different pieces of software that you will need for your system and what features to look for in each. Chapter 2 launches with a discussion of how taxonomy terms can be used within a workflow, connecting two—or more—taxonomies, and intelligent coordination of platforms and taxonomies. Microsoft SharePoint is a widely used and popular program, and I consider their use of taxonomies in this chapter. Following that is a discussion of taxonomies and semantic integration and then the relationship between indexing and the hierarchy of a taxonomy. Chapter 3 (“How is a Taxonomy Connected to Search?”) provides discussions and examples of putting taxonomies into use in practical applications. It discusses displaying content based on search, how taxonomy is connected to search, using a taxonomy to guide a searcher, tools for search, including search engines, crawlers and spiders, and search software, the parts of a search-capable system, and then how to assemble that search-capable system. This chapter also examines how to measure quality in search, the different kinds of search, and theories on search from several famous theoreticians—two from the 18th and 19th centuries, and two contemporaries. Following that is a section on inverted files, parsing, discovery, and clustering. While you probably don’t need a comprehensive understanding of these concepts to build a solid, workable system, enough information is provided for the reader to see how they fit into the overall scheme. This chapter concludes with a look at faceted search and some possibilities for search interfaces. Chapter 4, “Implementing a Taxonomy in a Database or on a Website,” starts where many content systems really should—with the authors, or at least the people who create the content. This chapter discusses matching up various groups of related data to form connections, data visualization and text analytics, and mobile and e-commerce applications for taxonomies. Finally, Chapter 5 presents some educated guesses about the future of knowledge organization.