A taxonomy is the spinal cord of any enterprise system. It provides the map to make your content findable in a quick and efficient manner. This also applies to your digital asset management (DAM) system. This interesting information came to us from CMS Wire in their article, “5 Signs Your Taxonomy Needs a DAM Update.”
A DAM system stores your digital assets and the taxonomy classifies them for management and findability. Like many things over time, an update is needed. As your business evolves, so does your DAM. Review each section of the structure to make sure it’s still relevant, and archive anything that is no longer useful.
Ironically, users can be helpful in identifying the weaknesses in your taxonomy. If uploaders don’t assign assets to the taxonomy, or if they use the “other” entry frequently, the current structure does not support their needs.
Taxonomies are there to be used. If they aren’t, then that might be an indicator that it is too complex.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
