Melody Smith

Are You My Mummy?

By Melody Smith | January 6, 2015

Animalmummies.net is a searchable database of Ancient Egyptian animal mummies. The Animal Mummy Database search interface provides a good example of taxonomic facets. You can browse by Animal Type, Wrapping Type, or Museum.

Techie Terms

By Melody Smith | January 6, 2015

Every year, additional words and phrases are added to our dictionaries. Many of them are technology-driven as evidenced by hashtag, selfie, and big data, which were all added to the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in 2014. Among the many new terms added, four specifically fall into the aforementioned technology group.

Meeting the Challenges

By Melody Smith | January 6, 2015

In an effort to find solutions to current challenges in records management, the Queensland State Archives (QSA) and the Queensland Government Chief Information Office (QGCIO) are leading a consultation process that will be open until Wednesday, 24 December 2014.

Marjorie M.K. Hlava’s Taxobook Published by Morgan Claypool

By Melody Smith | January 5, 2015

Access Innovations, Inc. is proud to announce the publication of The Taxobook, a three-volume series on taxonomies and thesauri, written by Marjorie M.K. Hlava, president of Access Innovations. The three volumes are part of a larger series, Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services, edited by Gary Marchionini, Dean of the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and published by Morgan & Claypool Publishers.

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

By Melody Smith | January 5, 2015

Taxonomies and classifications are not only helpful, but critical to making your content findable. This is true regardless of the topic or data – even when it is beer.

Common Factors

By Melody Smith | January 2, 2015

What do legal jurisdictions and leprechauns have in common? More than one might think. In the world of classification, words like extinct and endangered could be applied to both and many more genres.

Bringing It All Together

By Melody Smith | January 1, 2015

The launch of Salesforce Files Connect allows files from on-premises Microsoft SharePoint to be brought into a company’s cloud workflow.

e-Discovery Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

By Melody Smith | December 31, 2014

The word discovery causes anxiety in some and th term “e-discovery” is even scarier to some. Somehow despite the fact that we use technology on a daily basis, there is still resistance to incorporating digital evidence into a case.

Consistency with Standards

By Melody Smith | December 31, 2014

This interesting topic came from The Ancient World Online blog, in their post,”Reception of Antiquity in a Semantic Network: Digital Books, Images and Objects.” The aim of the project “Reception of Antiquity in a Semantic Network” within the Arachne database is the development and provision of web-based prints from the period between 1500 and 1830. The project encompasses reconstruction and online publication of about 1700 prints that appeared between 1500 and 1900, as well. A total of 2,300 engravings have been processed in this extensive digital indexing project, which spanned 4 1/2 years.

Seasonal Classification

By Melody Smith | December 30, 2014

In tune with the season, the American Museum of Natural History is featuring a scitification classification exercise where they are sharing one scientific find each day. On the first of the twelve days, a partridge in a book of taxonomy.