Building Taxonomies Part 2

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

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

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

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 Z39.19-2005

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

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

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

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 Z39.19-2005)

9. A “term” synonym ring Term Descriptor Node Category Subject heading

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

11. Concrete entities as terms • Things and their physical parts • primates • head • buildings • floors • Materials • cement • wood • lead

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

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.

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

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