What I Know for Sure...In Information Management

AIIM > Infonomics Magazine September/October 2008, by Joan Moumbleaux*

Extract: "For readers of O, The Oprah Magazine, you will recognize my article title as a riff on the title of her monthly editorials. Oprah’s column ruminates on unchanging truths in a changing world. As I sat reading her recent editorial, I found myself pulling out a list of “lessons learned” that I have created during my 22 year career, and two things happened...

Taxonomy is a sexy word for a subject classification catalog. Historically, the term taxonomy is linked with botanist Linnaeus who used the term to describe his hierarchical classification of things. Remember learning “kingdom, phylum, class…?” During the 1990s consultants began using the term “taxonomy” to describe library science concepts of classification schemes, controlled vocabulary and thesauri. Why?

The word had gravitas. It sounded more science-y and hence more interesting, sexier, to clients. The term has come to mean a polyhierarchical classification scheme representing intellectual relationships between concepts. Let’s face it; that is a subject classification scheme created so that we can catalog information. But no one in IT wants to be called a great cataloger! Did I hear someone say “ontology?” continue reading

*Joan Moumbleaux is the Knowledge Manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries' Restoration Center. She can be reached at 301.713.0174 x207 or joan.moumbleaux@noaa.gov. This article was previously published in “The Capitol Image,” the newsletter of the AIIM National Capitol Chapter.