When we think of a taxonomy often what comes to mind is a tree-type hierarchy of terms for classifying things, such as for classifying plants or animals. Trying to classify all information in an organization by a tree hierarchy is most likely not practical. Procedural policies, safety regulations, product specifications, employee manuals, white papers, marketing literature, staff meeting minutes, etc., do not belong in the same hierarchy. Rather, separate smaller hierarchies are needed. There are different ways to do this.
One method is to retain different taxonomies for the different functional areas, but ensure use of consistent terminology across all taxonomies for sharing of information. This way, various department systems can be retained, but future integration and search across all areas will also be supported. This method involves building on the existing system. To implement common terminology across all areas requires the “mapping” of current terms to the new shared terms.
Another method is to build an integrated taxonomy for the entire enterprise that is segmented not along use, functional, or department lines, but by term-type, so that multiple logical hierarchies can be built. Types of term-hierarchies, also called facets, could include people, places, departments/organizations, policies, procedures/methods, products, materials, etc. This is what is called a faceted taxonomy.
In either case, since each organization has its own unique requirements, it is best to build your own enterprise taxonomies. If you anticipate large and growing/changing taxonomies, you can either hire a consultant to get you started, or hire a taxonomist.
While most content management systems support the integration of a taxonomy, most do not include capabilities to create and edit a taxonomy. In such cases, taxonomy construction must be done offline in a different tool and imported into the CMS.
Taxonomies integrated into enterprise search are not necessarily the same as enterprise taxonomies, as discussed above. There are all kinds of enterprise search engines available on the market, and some include taxonomies and/or features for creating and editing taxonomies. An enterprise search engine which includes a taxonomy can be very effective in searching through large volumes of similar types of documents, such as financial statements, legal reports, product specifications, or research articles. For specific industries and purposes it is possible to buy a vertical market taxonomy included with a search engine. Ideally, the user can then add terms to the existing taxonomies, a task that most subject matter experts are capable of, even if they are not trained taxonomists.
A taxonomy as part of search engine does not even have to be hierarchical or faceted to provide a benefit. The most important feature of a taxonomy that is integrated into search is that each taxonomy term have all appropriate synonyms and other ways of wording a concept so that relevant documents can be retrieved no matter how the concept is worded in the document or entered by the user in the search box. What is also important is that the search engine includes a sophisticated method of automatic searching/categorization that, among other things, leverages these synonyms.
An enterprise taxonomy, with its consistent terms and logical organization, helps employees find information within the enterprise and especially on its intranet. An enterprise search engine with integrated taxonomies helps knowledge workers in an enterprise find valuable information in an enterprise’s repository of documents and beyond. These two kinds of applications of taxonomy are not identical, but neither are they mutually exclusive.
© 2008 Heather Hedden
Heather Hedden is an information taxonomist with Viziant Corporation and was previously a consultant through Hedden Information Management. In April she will also be teaching an online workshop on taxonomies through the continuing education program of Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Heather can be reached at heather[AT]hedden.net.
