Life as a Taxonomist Before I started working in controlled vocabularies myself, I didn’t know the field even existed. Unlike many taxonomists, I didn’t start with a Library Science degree...
Read More
KMWorld Conference The annual KMWorld Conference returned as an in-person event this year for the first time since 2019. The conference ran November 7th – 10th and included the co-located...
Read More
What Is an Information Silo? If you are in the field of information management, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase “information silo” or perhaps “data silo”. I grew up in...
Read More
Legacy in Language There are potential or new clients who come to us with a definitive version of their taxonomy, typically in a spreadsheet format like CSV or Excel. The...
Read More
Semantic Relationships I wrote a blog, “Building Healthy Relationships (in Ontologies)” last year, and I’m returning to this content to explore the development of semantic relationships in more detail. Specifically,...
Read More
Hierarchy Depth “Taxonomy” has become the de facto term for most types of controlled vocabularies, including flat lists, authority files, simple hierarchies, or thesauri. Whether we choose to be pedantic...
Read More
For our Insights series we talked with Helen Lippell and Bob Kasenchak about Taxonomies: Practical Approaches to Developing and Managing Vocabularies for Digital Information. This curated anthology by Helen Lippell...
Read More
Concept Names Language is inherently ambiguous. The dream to create universally agreed-upon, standardized conceptual language will be extremely difficult. We can achieve widely-accepted consensus, but that’s the silent agreement we...
Read More
Looking Forward I have blogged before about trends in taxonomies and ontologies, particularly based on observations from KMWorld and Taxonomy Boot Camp (in 2017, 2019, and 2020), Taxonomy Boot Camp...
Read More
Not just NPTs: Thinking in Labels The taxonomy standards (ANSI/NISO z39.19, ISO 25964-1, et al.) were written using the standard thesaural relationships and their abbreviations: BT, NT, RT, NPT (or...
Read More
