Taxodiary – Taxonomy

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!”

A Spirit of Another Name

By Melody Smith|March 31st, 2014|News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on A Spirit of Another Name

I live in Kentucky. You can't look either direction without seeing a billboard for one bourbon brand or another. It is infiltrated into our environment and definitely our economics. We all have our favorites and then there are the illusive brands that many covet and/or steal. But what is the difference between whisky, whiskey, and bourbon? Is there a difference?

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”.

The White Stuff

By Melody Smith|March 7th, 2014|News, Taxonomy|1 Comment

For most of us snow is a 4-letter word. Winter has lasted longer and been meaner this year than the decade prior. We are all yearning for spring to arrive and personally, I will hurt the first person who complains that they are hot. But seriously, you can't be surprised that I found a taxonomy of snow. It was inevitable.

The Devil is in the Details

By Melody Smith|March 6th, 2014|indexing, metadata, News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on The Devil is in the Details

Implementing a digital asset management (DAM) system can be challenging. Many factors pose hurdles of varying degrees: asset ingestion, building the database, relevant and descriptive metadata, to name a few. It is key to make the assets descriptive enough to make them worth the time to search and find them.

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.

Pumas and Cougars and Snails, OH MY!

By Melody Smith|March 3rd, 2014|Access Insights, Featured, Taxonomy, Term lists|Comments Off on Pumas and Cougars and Snails, OH MY!

When you use a thesaurus for indexing context covering multiple disciplines, the need for disambiguation of terms is increased. This fact of thesaurus life was well illustrated in a presentation at this year’s DHUG (Data Harmony Users Group) meeting. The presentation, by Rachel Drysdale, Taxonomy Manager of the Public Library of Science (PLOS), was titled “The PLOS Thesaurus: the first year.”

Classifying Colors

By Melody Smith|February 27th, 2014|News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on Classifying Colors

As a writer, I can completely understand someone who "loves to collect words." Whether you are writing a story, reading or just mentally bookmarking words for future use, I get the fascination.

The Taxonomy of Redundancy

By Melody Smith|February 21st, 2014|News, Taxonomy|Comments Off on The Taxonomy of Redundancy

We have all worked at organizations at one time or another that touted their mission, vision, and values and expected staff to be able to recite them at any time, on the spot. If you have ever worked at a hospital, you were often threatened with "Joint Commission might ask you in the hallway and you have to know." Thirteen years later, no Joint Commission surveyor had ever stopped me to inquire of such information. All that memorizing was for naught.