The document discusses different methods for organizing information into categories for identification and retrieval, including ontologies, taxonomies, thesauri, subject headings, classifications, and indexes. It provides examples of specific thesauri and classification schemes used in different domains like arts, human services, public affairs, and government. The document also discusses how taxonomies are developed and the difference between classification schemes and subject headings.

1. CIAN Forum 2004 Taxonomies, thesauri, subject headings – what are they and how do we use them?

2. The terms ontology , taxonomy , thesaurus, categories, subject headings, indexes and classifications all describe ways of organising things – eg information, objects - into categories so that they can be identified, located and retrieved.

3. What is ontology? The study of what kinds of things exist, the nature of being. In the information technology context: the specification of conceptualisations used to help programs and humans share knowledge.

4. What is a taxonomy? A taxonomy is a system, usually hierarchical, for naming and organising things into groups that share similar characteristics. The concept of modern taxonomy originated in the 1700s when the Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, developed a system of classification and nomenclature for living organisms. This is still widely used.

5. The development of a good taxonomy involves separating elements of a group into subgroups that are mutually exclusive, unambiguous, and taken together, include all possibilities. A thesaurus is an example of a taxonomy.

6. What is a thesaurus? A structured vocabulary, typically including synonyms and/or hierarchical relationships, for the purpose of indexing and cross-referencing in order to organise a collection of concepts for reference and retrieval.

7. CISA’s Community Services Thesaurus is used in South Australia by community information managers to index services for retrieval by subject searching.

8. Examples of thesauri Art & Architecture Thesaurus The AAT contains around 125,000 terms describing art, architecture, decorative arts, material culture, and archival materials. www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/about.html

9. INFO LINE of Los Angeles Taxonomy of Human Services : a conceptual framework with standardized terminology and definitions for the field Contains over 6300 terms, endorsed by AIRS and United Way and incorporated into major I & R software packages www.infoline-la.org

10. APAIS Thesaurus Lists subject terms used to index articles for APAIS: Australian Public Affairs Information Service, a subject guide to literature in the social sciences and humanities. www.nla.gov.au/apais/thesaurus/about.html

11. Australian Institute of Family Studies - Family Thesaurus Over 1800 terms covering terminology in family studies, an interdisciplinary field of study encompassing sociology, psychology, demography, education, family law, and history. www.aifs.gov.au/institute/info/thesaurus.html

12. Functions thesaurus A ‘functions thesaurus’ emphasises its coverage of functions , which are units of business activity in an organisation or jurisdiction. It uses three levels: function : activity : subject but there is no inherent hierarchical relationship between function and activity, or between activity and subject

13. Examples: AGIFT - Australian Governments' Interactive Functions Thesaurus, a web-based thesaurus that links plain English words with terms used by governments www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/gov_online/agift/agift_faq.html Keyword AAA - Australian standard public sector records management thesaurus www.records.nsw.gov.au/publicsector/rk/aaa/KeywordAAA.htm NZGLS thesauri (FONZ and SONZ) Terms from both these thesauri are combined to describe government information, services and other resources in a consistent manner. Functions are activities; subjects are things or people www.e-government.govt.nz/nzgls/thesauri/index.asp

14. What is a classification scheme ? A logical scheme for arrangement of knowledge, usually by subject. Classification schemes can be alpha and/or numeric

15. Examples: Library of Congress Classification www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso Dewey Decimal Classification www.oclc.org/dewey Universal Decimal Classification A multilingual classification scheme for all fields of knowledge, adapted from the Dewey Decimal Classification www.udcc.org/about.htm

16. Community information managers are familiar with subject indexing and creating publication or directory structures. These are both ways of classifying information.

17. What are subject headings? An alphabetical list of words or phrases that represent a concept, eg Library of Congress Subject Headings.

18. What is indexing ? Indexing is describing or identifying a document in terms of subject content. Index terms may be in natural language (eg Dublin Core Metadata Subject element) or controlled vocabulary or a classification notation.

19. There are a number of ways to create taxonomies and place information objects within their categories: Automated – using computer programs Semi automated – combination of computer and manual input Manual – done entirely by a person

20. CISA Thesaurus Revision CISA is undertaking a comprehensive review of the Community Services Thesaurus. A reference group will be established to oversee the process. It will involve a section by section review of all terms with input from subject specialists, community information workers and others from the government and community sectors.