I have another life outside the taxonomy world, one that often reminds me how connected we all really are in this world. I am attending a conference on faith-based communications. See, I told you it was a different life. While doing the “meet and greet” with fellow attendees, one lady mentioned she used to teach library and information sciences before feeling a call to write and even start her own small publishing company. The others around us queried her about the books, publishing, etc. I waited patiently to ask her about her previous life. You see, when I tell people I write about taxonomy, the response is almost always, “Is that about dead animals?”
I found myself eager to discuss what I do with someone who not only knew what it was, but understood it. I told her I thought we had a connection outside the conference parameters and explained why. Her response was, “I dumbed down what I taught because most people have no clue. I actually taught catalog science.” She knew of Access Innovations. It was a pleasure to discuss metadata, ontology, indexing, etc. with someone who surely knew even more about those things than I do.
This connection reminded me of a taxonomy itself. The relationship factor between people is no different from the relationships between terms.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
