![Page 1: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Taxonomy Development:
Lessons from a Librarian
Toronto SharePoint Business Users Group
Kate Wilson
21/08/2014
![Page 2: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
A bit about me
• Hi, I’m Kate Wilson – former librarian.
21/08/2014
(Not sure how I got here from Music
Librarian, but thrilled that I did!)
2
• Graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of
Information (iSchool)
• Information Management consultant for
NetDexterity
![Page 3: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
What I do
21/08/2014 3
Information Management Consultant
• Document management, records management, taxonomy, navigation, metadata,
usability, design, testing…
• Set people up to find what they need, when they need it!
About NetDexterity
• Toronto-based Microsoft Partner
• Deliver Enterprise Information Management solutions, mainly on apps
![Page 4: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
The Project
The Client
• Public library system for a large Canadian city
• About 2,000 end users across ~80 branches
• Existing intranet (html) and series of shared
drives
21/08/2014 4
The Challenge
• Implement SharePoint 2013
• Very tight timeline and budget
![Page 5: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
The Goal
Develop a Taxonomy
• A hierarchical representation of the organization’s knowledge domain.
• From the taxonomy we would develop:
• Site architecture
• Metadata schema
• Navigation
21/08/2014 5
Challenge: Produce a high-quality
product in a limited amount of time
![Page 6: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
So… now what?
21/08/2014 6
![Page 7: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
7
![Page 8: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
8
![Page 9: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Interviews
Talk to individual users and stakeholders and learn what content they work with, how
best to organize it, and what site areas they’d like to see.
9
Pros
• Stakeholder involvement means better buy-in to
the end product
X Cons
• Time consuming
• Output not hierarchical
![Page 10: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Content Inventories
Create a spreadsheet containing all of the pages in
the organization’s existing intranet and/or shared
drive.
21/08/2014 10
Pros
• Good way to assess all existing content
• Hierarchical representation
X Cons
• Doesn’t take into account new areas the
organization may need
• Doesn’t really involve the client
![Page 11: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Sketchboarding
Get stakeholders and subject matter experts together and ask them to
collaborate on a potential site architecture and workflows.
21/08/2014 11
Pros
• Collaborative, and some people really like
working on paper
X Cons
• Paper is hard to share and doesn’t lend itself to
easy iterations
• Once the sketchboard is complete, it has to be
transcribed into another format to be useful.
![Page 12: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Card Sorting
Each business or knowledge area is written on a separate index card. End users
are recruited and asked to group ‘like’ things together into a hierarchy.
21/08/2014 12
Pros
• Organizes content into a hierarchy, which is the
outcome we wanted
• Get a sense for how users think
X Cons
• Users aren’t coming up with the cards
themselves – are they the right cards?
![Page 13: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Conclusion
• Combine the best elements of all
methodologies into a workshop:
• Involve the client to gain buy-in
• Collaborative and iterative
•Output is hierarchical
• Considers existing content and future growth
21/08/2014 13
![Page 14: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
My Approach
1421/08/2014
![Page 15: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Workshop Concept
• A bottom-up approach to a function-oriented taxonomy.
21/08/2014 15
COLLECT
Gather information/
content types
1
ANALYZE
Identify broader
themes and topics
2
ORGANIZE
Map themes and
topics hierarchically
3
![Page 16: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Participants
• The workshop would consist of:
21/08/2014 16
Project Team (8)Subject Matter
Experts (7)
Stakeholders representative of
different business areas.
End users and/or content
owners from each business area
(Some overlap between
the two groups)
![Page 17: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Preparation
Two weeks before workshop:
• Invitations sent to Project Team and Subject Matter Experts
• Background material provided to participants
• Intro slide deck about what is a taxonomy, why we are creating one, and the general
outline of the workshop
• Participants assigned homework
• Asked to think about what kinds of information they work with and bring a list to the
workshop
21/08/2014 17
![Page 18: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Preparation
How I prepared
• Prior to the workshop, I created a
content inventory of their shared
drives and intranet website
• This information was mainly to keep
in my ‘back pocket’
21/08/2014 18
I like to use Xmind
![Page 19: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Workshop
(Approx 3 hours)
21/08/2014 19
![Page 20: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Workshop
Introduction
21/08/2014 20
~30 minutes
• Began with quick introductions – first myself, then around the table
• Next, took the participants through the introductory slides
• Invite questions from participants
![Page 21: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Workshop
1. Collect
21/08/2014 21
~30 minutes
• Asked participants to write on sticky notes the kind
of information they interact with on a day-to-day
basis, then put the sticky notes on the wall.
• This step was the quickest because the participants
had been asked to come up with their list in advance.Gather information/
content types
![Page 22: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Workshop
21/08/2014 22
• Asked participants to group related information
together under subject headings, or topics/themes.
• The themes generally reflected how the information
was used (function)
• As group came up with headings I recorded them in
XMind
Identify broader
themes and topics
2. Analyze ~45 minutes
![Page 23: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Workshop
21/08/2014 23
• Asked participants to arrange topics and themes into
hierarchical groupings.
• Participants found it difficult not to place the themes
into groups based on ownership – wanted to recreate
their org chart.
• This step done on XMind and projected from my
laptop. (Easier to move sections around.)
Map themes and
topics hierarchically
3. Organize ~60 minutes
![Page 24: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Workshop Output
2421/08/2014
![Page 25: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
After the Workshop
21/08/2014 25
![Page 26: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Finalizing the Taxonomy
• Workshop provided the tools for taxonomy development
• Workshop participants met weekly for an hour to discuss and finalize
taxonomy
• Later, the meetings became about site structure, metadata, and
navigation.
• I attended each weekly meeting to provide guidance and oversight to
the process
21/08/2014 26
![Page 27: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Lessons Learned
Biggest challenge
• Participants intuitively seem to want to group information by content owner.
What went well
• ‘Back pocket’ inventory of existing intranet proved useful.
• Client extremely satisfied with the result – high quality taxonomy created in
weeks
• Cost effective – consultant hours limited to prep work, workshop, and
weekly check-ins
21/08/2014 27
![Page 28: Taxonomy Development: Lessons from a Librarian](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022051312/547b8963b47959a4098b4e7a/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Success Factors
• Make sure that if a participant can’t make it, they send someone to fill in.
•Otherwise the ‘voice’ of a user group may be missing
• Bring a note-taker to capture comments and ideas from participants, and
to be an extra set of hands.
21/08/2014 28