Session B205 — Developing a Taxonomy
4:15 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Kathryn Breininger & Mary Whittaker, Librarians, The Boeing Company
I'll start of with – this session just blew my mind. All the Work. All the effort. All the people involved. All the cost. All the buy in from all levels. All the time.
There must have been an incredible problem for them to have invested so so very much.
Setting the stage – from Outsell survey – 13 hr / week searching and analyzing information; 2 hr more than 2 years ago
Information overload
People don't know what words to search for
No two people organize the same way
Taxonomy – controlled vocabulary – hierarchical – broader and narrower terms – equivalent terms as well
Word list – synonym ring – taxonomy – thesaurus – ontology
Z39.9 standard for controlled vocabulary
Considerations
- Avoid reinvention an existing taxonomy
- Construction methods
- Dimensions
- Size of taxonomy
- Facets
- Intended use
Process
- Determine requirements
- Identify concepts
- Develop draft taxonomy
- Review with users and audience
- Refine taxonomy
- Apply to content
- Manage and maintain taxonomy
Manual tagging of existing content
- Time and effort – is it worth it
- Time for maintenance
- Version control
Constant analysis of results and search errors
Terms used excessively or rarely need to be examined
When testing – do you get good results – does it match user expectations – user evaluation – expert evaluation – various methods of testing – qualitative testing – measurable or subjective
Engaging People
- strong sponsor
- obtain user buy in
- IT handles software
- subject experts, librarians, owners handle taxonomy
- keep team smallish, manageable
Process for term suggestions
Process for handling comments
Process for communication
Process for appeals
Release schedules
Team charters available at IL2007 site later
Taxonomy implementation drivers
- Search inefficiencies
- Bottom line impacted by inabiligy to find info
- IT pressured to find solution
- Content management systems
- Knowledge management initiatives
Tag content at creation
- Integrate all taxonomies into one
- Owned by those who classify
- Incorporate with search functions
Productivity benefits
- More time for analysis since search was faster
- Less duplication of effort
- Fewer poor decisions due to lack of information
- More focus on info as strategic asset
- More internal knowledge sharing
- Better understanding of terminology
- Structure brings context to terms
- Facilitates browsing
- Standardized access
- Brings fragmented content together
- Reflects scope of business
- Assists in learning the domain
- Supports business goals
Considerations
- It is a cost
- Tagged content must be used
- Technology cost
- Time cost
- Integrate for maximum ROI
- Phased rollout
- Need strong political buy in
- Subject matter experts are important
- Automated tools can get it wrong – human review
Avoid
- Corporate lingo
- Department names
- Undefined acronyms
- Over thinking
- Over engineering
- Unneeded sections
- Proprietary system for taxonomy management
IL2007
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