1. Taxonomies and Classification for Organizing Content
Elizabeth Wong
INF 385E
February 16, 2012

2. Presentation Outline What are classification and taxonomy?
How classification and taxonomy are relevant and useful to IA
Keep in mind
Questions

3. Definitions by Distinction
“Taxonomies? That’s classified information.”
-Jordan Cassel from The Accidental Taxonomist

4. Classification vs. Classification Scheme
IA Glossary Definition of Classification:
The sorting of things into pre-defined categories. 

5. Classification vs. Classification Scheme
Classification Scheme: “A tool for systematic organization of information resources.”
- GG Chowdury
Organizing Information from the Shelf to the Web

6. Types of Classification
Alphabetic
Numeric
Alphanumeric
Taxonomies
Facets
Etc.

7. Many meanings of taxonomy
Original Greek: taxis=arrangement and nomos=law or science (study of classification)
Information- in general – 1990s
Two common usages
1) Narrow: A hierarchical classification or categorization system
2) Broad: Any means of organizing concepts of knowledge
- Heather Hedden The Accidental Taxonomist

8. Why organize? To make sense of information
To understand and promote relationships
To understand the world better

9. Taxonomies are . . .
Any set of terms that share some organizing principle. – MSWeb team
Constructs that help people search, browse, and manage (intranet) content more effectively

10. Seth Earley on Taxonomies

11. Taxonomies include Controlled vocabularies Hierarchies
Information thesauri
Ontologies

12. Controlled Vocabularies
“A restricted list of words or terms for some specialized purpose, usually for indexing, labeling, or categorizing.”
Heather Hedden The Accidental Taxonomist

13. Hierarchical Taxonomies

14. Thesauri Show three types of relationships: Hierarchical (BT/NT)
Associative (RT)
Equivalence (Use/UF)

15. Ontologies Thesauri + more complex relationships
Aims to describe a domain of knowledge
Supports inferencing

16. Applications and Purposes of Taxonomies
Indexing support
Retrieval support
Organization and navigation support
Ch. 20 in Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

17. Meeting your taxonomy needs
Buy one
Adapt one
Build one

18. Keep in mind
Content
Users
Context
Be flexible and multidisciplinary!

19. References
Chowdhury, GG, and Sudatta Chowdhury. Organizing Information from the Shelf to the Web. London: Facet, Print.
Doyle, Bob. "Glossary - Information Architecture Institute." The Information Architecture Institute. Web. 13 Feb <
Hedden, Heather. The Accidental Taxonomist. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Print.
Morville, Peter, and Louis Rosenfeld. Information Architecture and the World Wide Web. 3rd ed. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, Print.
Taylor, Arlene G. The Organization of Information. 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, Print.

20. Questions?