If you are like me, words intrigue and inspire you. I could be called a thesaurus nerd, reading and researching words synonymous with one another to add impact to my writing and tell my stories with more emotion, detail, and energy. This topic was inspired by the article, “A thesaurus by any other name is still a thesaurus,” from the Powdersville Post.
The fact that a word is almost similar or almost synonymous to another word doesn’t always mean that it will work well as a non-preferred term in a structured thesaurus or taxonomy. However, developing a classification system organized into conceptually similar categories can help users gain a better understanding of the taxonomy subject area. How the content is classified impacts the findability of your data.
Professionals should look for an experienced builder of solid standards-based taxonomies to associate content for appropriate machine-assisted indexing. Access Innovations can provide solutions that are ANSI-compliant.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
