A lot of work can be put into designing and creating a taxonomy, but if it’s not implemented or used properly for tagging or indexing, then that work can be wasted. As the volume of content has grown, many organizations have invested in auto-tagging/auto-categorization solutions utilizing text analytics technologies. However,…
Category: Indexing
Indexes and Faceted Taxonomies
I recently completed a project of creating an index for a book. I had done quite a bit of freelance back-of-the-book indexing 2005 – 2013 but had not indexed a book in over four years. Since I also do taxonomy work, whenever I do indexing, I draw comparison between index…
Taxonomies and Indexes
Taxonomies and indexes are similar in that they both help guide people to find desired information on a selected topic. While they could be searched, they are designed specifically to be browsed. The obvious difference is that taxonomies for end-users are arranged hierarchically (or by facets), and indexes are arranged…
Taxonomies for Indexing Images
It’s becoming more common to index images with taxonomy terms, instead of just text documents or instead of just keyword-tagging of images. A taxonomy for the subject-indexing of images need not be significantly different than a taxonomy for indexing textual documents, but other metadata differs, and the indexing activity is…
Indexing vs. Thesaurus Creation
The activities of back-of-the-book indexing, document/digital asset indexing, and thesaurus/taxonomy creation all require similar skills, but each has its own unique requirements. Indeed a typical career path toward an accidental taxonomist is to first work as an indexer. You might think that the two kinds of indexing are similar to…
Tagging vs. Indexing
I have blogged before on the difference between tags and categories, but recently someone asked me about the difference between tagging and indexing (the manual kind). It’s not a simple answer.One important way in which tagging and indexing differ is that tagging involves any kind of designation for what a…
Tags and Categories
What does a taxonomy comprise and how does it work? Professional taxonomists may speak of “terms,” “nodes,” or “labels,” whereas most other people with a basic understanding of taxonomy might refer to “tags” or “categories.” A category is a well understood concept, and social media sites have made the notion…