Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 1 Building Taxonomies Part 2 Alice Redmond-Neal Access Innovations, Inc. Enterprise Search Summit New York City, May 21, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 2 How do you choose the words? Let’s talk about terms and taxonomies How to choose terms How to ensure term clarity, avoid ambiguity –Vocabulary control—why and how How to format terms Terms within a taxonomy—the big picture

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 3 How do you choose terms? Importance in the subject area Use in the literature, by the organization or community Necessary degree of specificity or detail Relationship with other controlled vocabularies

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 4 Vocabulary control – why? “The need for vocabulary control arises from two basic features of natural language, namely: two or more words or terms can be used to represent a single concept, and two or more words that have the same spelling can represent different concepts.” ANSI/NISO Z

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 5 Vocabulary control through disambiguation Synonyms – de-duplicate meanings Multiple words for the same concept –President of the United States, POTUS –Biological technology, Biotech Homographs (polysemes) – eliminate ambiguity Same written word used for multiple meanings –Balloon—which kind?, Box—which kind? –Cells, Mercury, Records, Bridge/Bridges, Bush

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 6 Vocabulary control – how? Organize terms to show which of two or more synonymous terms is preferred or authorized for use to distinguish between homographs to indicate hierarchical and associative relationships among terms

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 7 Vocabulary control – in practice Use unambiguous terms, clear to the user group Distinguish between terms that appear similar Use Scope Notes when necessary Use terms as elements that can be coordinated in a flexible manner Create compound terms (noun+modifier) when necessary

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 8 One term / one concept “Terms in a thesaurus should represent simple or unitary concepts…” (ISO standard) “Each descriptor included in a thesaurus should represent a single concept (or unit of thought). …frequently expressed by a single-word term but in many cases a multiword term is required.” (ANSI/NISO Z )

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 9 A “term” synonym ring Term Node Subject heading Category Descriptor

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 10 So what’s a concept? “A unit of thought, formed by mentally combining some or all of the characteristics of a concrete or abstract, real or imaginary object. Concepts exist in the mind as abstract entities independent of terms used to express them.” Three main categories –Abstract concepts –Concrete entities –Proper nouns

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 11 Concrete entities as terms Things and their physical parts –primates head –buildings floors Materials –cement –wood –lead

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 12 Abstract concepts as terms Actions and events –evolution, skating, management, ceremonies Abstract entitites –law, theory Properties of things, materials, and actions –strength, efficiency Disciplines and sciences –physics, meteorology, mathematics Units of measurement –pounds, kilograms, miles, meters, nanoseconds

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 13 Proper nouns as terms Individual entities – “classes of one” – expressed as proper nouns –San Francisco, Lake Michigan Thesaurus standards prefer to exclude proper names, persons, and trade names. Extensive lists  authority files. Taxonomies include them as final nodes.

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 14 Pop quiz – which qualify as terms? rooms living rooms living room furniture “single unit of thought” schools public schools public school curricula marketing and advertising societal issues information ethics, plagiarism, credibility information literacy, lifelong learning

Copyright © 2006 Access Innovations, Inc. 15 Would you agree? rooms living rooms living room furniture “single unit of thought” schools public schools public school curricula marketing and advertising societal issues information ethics, plagiarism, credibility information literacy, lifelong learning