Taxodiary – Access Insights

Thesaurus Software Directory Takes Up New Residence

By Melody Smith|April 17th, 2014|Access Insights, News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Thesaurus Software Directory Takes Up New Residence

It is difficult to find a list of taxonomy management software that is both comprehensive and up to date, yet not overwhelmed with related products and services. For a long time the most comprehensive directory of taxonomy software was that of the British consultant Leonard Will, who has since retired. Considering the valuable and respected content, we at Access Innovations recognize our good fortune and huge responsibility of now hosting and maintaining the Willpower Thesaurus software directory.

Intro to Taxonomies – Learning Opportunity

By Melody Smith|April 15th, 2014|Access Insights, News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Intro to Taxonomies – Learning Opportunity

Learn from professionals with decades of experience all while enjoying the Canadian hospitality in beautiful Vancouver. The "Introduction to Taxonomies" all day workshop features our own Marjorie Hlava and Bob Kasenchak, and is part of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference in Vancouver, June 6-10, 2014. The SLA Annual Conference is an excellent international venue for learning new ideas and identifying information trends.

Limitations of Fuzzy Matching of Lexical Variants

By Melody Smith|April 14th, 2014|Access Insights, Featured, semantic|Comments Off on Limitations of Fuzzy Matching of Lexical Variants

Some vendors of text analytics software claim that their software can identify the occurrences of text reflecting specific taxonomy terms (with the strong, and false, implication that it identifies all such occurrences) using “fuzzy matching” or “fuzzy term matching.” Some explanations of the technology, from Techopedia and Wikipedia, show that it is a fairly crude mathematical approach, similar to the co-occurrence statistical approaches that such software also tends to use, and no match for rule-based indexing approaches that derive their effectiveness from human intelligence.

The Semantics of Whisk(e)y

By Melody Smith|April 7th, 2014|Access Insights, Featured, Taxonomy|Comments Off on The Semantics of Whisk(e)y

As noted last week in our article, "A Spirit of Another Name", Saveur has created a glossary of Whisk(e)ys. However, as we all know, a glossary does not a taxonomy make –it can, however, be a good starting point. One of the problems, of course, is that national styles – and even spellings—are mutable. In general, “whiskey” comes from Ireland and the United States, while “whisky” (no ‘e’) comes from Canada and Scotland. However, well-known bourbon Maker’s Mark long ago decided to buck the semantic trend and drop the “e” despite being an all-American brand.

Knowledge Organization Systems and Return on Investment (KOSs and ROI)

By Melody Smith|March 31st, 2014|Access Insights, Business Intelligence, Business strategy, Featured, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Knowledge Organization Systems and Return on Investment (KOSs and ROI)

Let's call him George. George was having a very bad day. He needed legal advice. So, over his lunch hour he scheduled an appointment. After George described his situation, the lawyer pulled a book from the shelf behind him. After briefly scanning it and checking precedent, he confidently told George with a smile, “Relax. This is a slam dunk.” On his way out of the office, George gazed at the consultation invoice and muttered to himself: “15 minutes! Only 15 minutes and he charged me $325.00!”

Records Management in the Court System

By Melody Smith|March 26th, 2014|Access Insights, indexing, metadata, News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Records Management in the Court System

Of course records play a vital role in the litigation process as any records management professional would affirm. But what exactly is their role?

Of Taxonomies, Biology, and Moneyball

By Melody Smith|March 24th, 2014|Access Insights, Featured, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Of Taxonomies, Biology, and Moneyball

Baseball and biology are not commonly found in the same conceptual space. Neither do you find taxonomy associated with baseball, but in recent news these connections were made. Grant Bisbee, editor of “Baseball Nation”, digresses into the arcane as he laments the coming of the “He’s In the Best Shape of His Life” season. This is the time of year baseball writers must assess the prospects for the coming season, and clichés and hyperbole reign. The dubious practice of evaluating the physical condition of players runs rampant as spring training begins. With tongue in cheek, Bisbee tries to shape a taxonomy to classify this spring ritual. His would be the taxonomy of the “In the Best-shape Stories”.

Release of Data Harmony® Software Version 3.9 Planned for March 31, 2014

By Melody Smith|March 17th, 2014|Access Insights, Featured, indexing, metadata|Comments Off on Release of Data Harmony® Software Version 3.9 Planned for March 31, 2014

Data Harmony, a division of Access Innovations, Inc., has announced that version 3.9 of its suite of software tools will be released on March 31, 2014. Current customers will be the first to receive the new version. “Our recent enhancements provide greater search efficiency while browsing your thesaurus through callouts and hyperlinks to related and narrower terms,” said Allex Lyons, one of the Data Harmony programming team. “Dropdown menus in the search window display subject terms with a type head (autocomplete) function that assists users of any skill or experience level.”

Semantic Fingerprinting for Name Disambiguation

By Melody Smith|March 10th, 2014|Access Insights, Featured, metadata, semantic, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Semantic Fingerprinting for Name Disambiguation

Many institutions and organizations – notably (but not limited to) publishers – have large, or sometimes very very large, lists of names. These names are from member directories, employees and staff, clients and customers, marketing, development, and many other sources; indeed, oftentimes the lists from various departments in the same organization are not connected or resolved with one another in any way.

Well-Built Taxonomies are Core of Knowledge Management

By Melody Smith|March 5th, 2014|Access Insights, News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Well-Built Taxonomies are Core of Knowledge Management

Access Innovations' CEO, Jay Ven Eman shared his views of taxonomies and their correlation to knowledge management in a recent article feature.