Taxonomies, Thesauri & Facets

A Quick Guide to Organizing & Referencing Content

What is a Thesaurus/Taxonomy?

• These are controlled vocabularies designed to

get your user to the content they seek.• For example, suppose you have a website on

house pets and someone searches for “kittens” – the preferred term would be “cat.”

Your Heading would

Read: Cat (PT)kitten (UF)

1. Broader terms are listed for “Library Science”

2. Related Terms are NOT synonyms but “related topics”

3. Library Science is the Preferred Term. UF librarianship

Let’s click on “Librarians” and see what we get.

Again, you can see a multitude of examples for BT, RT and UF.

Let’s look at a directory example

MyFlorida.com

Primary Headings (LT) or (PT)

Related Terms (RT)

• Goose Island 312 in a 12 oz. bottle, filtered, Wheat Beer, Made in America

• Goose Island Summertime in a 12 oz. bottle, filtered, Kolsch Beer, Made in America

• Budweiser in a 12 oz. can filtered, lager beer, Made in America• Landshark in a 12 oz. bottle, filtered, lager, Made in America• Coors Light in a 16 oz. can filtered, light Beer Made in America• Blue Moon in a 12 oz. bottle, unfiltered, Witbier Made in America• Corona in an 8 oz. bottle, filtered, Pale Lager Made in Mexico• Hacker- ‐Pshorr in a 500 ml bottle, unfiltered, Hefeweizen Made in

Germany• Paulaner in a 500 ml bottle, unfiltered, Hefeweizen Made in

Germany• Hoegaarden in a 12 oz bottle unfiltered, Witbier Made in

Belgium

Let’s consider a list:

• The first step is to figure out what your primary categories are & think like a seeker

• How we group these items?• How would you arrange them in a physical

space?• If you had a beer website, what would the

navigation look like?

Where to start

• Here are a few ideas:Brewery / ManufacturerFiltering Methods or PreparaUon Methods Types of BeerCountry of Origin (American beer vs. German)

A Starting Place

• Beer, wine, liquor or other type of alcohol beverages? • Beer becomes primary heading

• What if the system is about more than just a list of beers or alcoholic beverages?• Beverage might now be a primary

heading

Scope: What is encompassed in the categorical schema?

Beer, TypeAle Kolsch Lager

Pale LagerLambic Light Beer Pale Ale Pilsner Port Stout Wheat

Hefeweizen Witbier

Brewing MethodsFiltration

Cold Filtering Pasteurized

UF FilteredUnfiltered

BreweriesAnheuser- ‐Busch

LandsharkBudweiser

BudweiserCoorsBlue Moon

Goose Island3

12SummerUm

e Grupo ModeloCorona

Hacker- ‐Pschorr Hoegaarden Brewery Paulaner

Country of OriginA

merica Belgium Germany Mexico

Looks a lot like an index. The only thing we are missing is our notations.

Beer, Type (LT)Ale (NT)Kolsch (NT) Lager (NT)

Pale Lager (NT)

Lambic (NT)

Light Beer (NT)

Pale Ale(NT)

Pilsner (NT)

Port (NT) Stout

(NT) Wheat

(NT)Hefeweiz

en (NT) Witbier (NT)

Brewing Methods (LT)

FiltraUon (NT)

Cold Filtering (NT) Pasteurized (NT)

UF Filtered Unfiltered (NT)

Breweries (LT)UF Brewing Companies

Anheuser- ‐Busch (NT)Landshark (NT)

Budweiser (NT)Bud

weiser (NT)Coors (NT)Blue Moon (NT)

Goose Island (NT)312

(NT)SummerUme

(NT)Grupo Modelo

(NT)Corona (NT)

Hacker- ‐Pschorr (NT) Hoegaarden Brewery (NT)

Paulaner (NT)Country of Origin (LT)

America (NT)U

F US UF USAUF United States

Belgium (NT)Ge

rmany (NT) Mexico (NT)

• You can see we have added a few UF headings

• Most of the other heading are simply NT or LT

• Now, what about our RTs?• Well, this is where you have to use

your imagination• What else could be related to any of our

primary or secondary headings in regards to beer?

Polishing it up

Related Terms• Beer, Type Lambic Monastic Brewing RT, Beer

Ingredients, Fruit RT• Brewing Methods Home Brewing RT

• Goose Island Brewpubs, America RT, Craft Beer, RT

• Anheuser- ‐Busch Beer History, America RT

• Grupo Modelo Beer Industry, Mexico RT

• This list could go on and on and it is limited by

your imagination in this case

• Content will drive your taxonomy – to include RTs• You can see the headings are not much

different from the index of a book• RTs are like Amazon’s suggestions in many

ways “If you liked this, you might also like…”

Related Terms cont.

UFs

• The UF headings in the thesaurus are designed to “map terms”

• That is a fancy way of saying we ensure only a single term is used – the correct one – to locate an item

• America is a good example UF USA• This same principle is employed in

Google’s spell correction feature

• UFs are often derived from common misspellings, words that are different but have the same meaning (US or USA)

• Search logs analysis• If this is confusing to you, go back and read

“The Accidental Thesaurus” by Wiggins

Where do UFs come from

Taxonomy or Thesaurus?

Taxonomy – structure is around hierarchy

What about facets?• Could go with list as it is or expand it.• Quite easy to see how the beer list could expand:

o Container: Bottle, Can, Keg, Mini Kego Country of Origin: Germany, USA, Great Britain, etc.o Type: Wheat, Ale, Lager, Pale Ale, IPA, Stout, Porter, etc.o Brewery: Anheuser-Busch, Coors Brewing, etc.

Enumerative Facets

1. Bottle2. Can3. Mini

Keg4. Keg

1. Ale2. IPA3. Lager4. Pale

Ale5. Wheat

1. Bass2. Beck’s3. Coors

Brewing4. Goose

Island5. Revolutio

n Brewing

A. BelgiumB. FranceC. GermanyD. Great

BritainE. USA

Country of Origin Brewing Co. Type Container

Enumerative Facets

1. Bottle2. Can3. Mini

Keg4. Keg

1. Ale2. IPA3. Lager4. Pale

Ale5. Wheat

1. Bass2. Beck’s3. Coors

Brewing4. Goose

Island5. Revolution

Brewing

A. BelgiumB. FranceC. GermanyD. Great

BritainE. USA

Order of Organization: Country / Brewery / Type / Container

Country of Origin Brewing Co. Type Container

Enumerative Facets

1. Bottle2. Can3. Mini

Keg4. Keg

1. Ale2. IPA3. Lager4. Pale

Ale5. Wheat

1. Bass2. Beck’s3. Coors

Brewing4. Goose

Island5. Revolutio

n Brewing

A. BelgiumB. FranceC. GermanyD. Great

BritainE. USA

Order of Organization: Country / Brewery / Type / Container

Country of Origin Brewing Co. Type Container

E332 = USA, Coors Brewing Co., Lager in Can = Coors Banquet

E451 = USA, Goose Island Brewery, Wheat in Bottle = 312

Wrapping it up• Practical examples give us insight to systems of

organization• All about breaking down the pieces for easier

assimilation• Systems are often hybrid in nature• Taxonomy, facet or thesaurus – what is the goal• Get the seeker to what is sought as quickly as

possible