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Heather Hedden
Information Today, Medford, NJ , 2010 , paperback , pp. xxi+370 & appendices , $39.50 ,
ISBN: 978-1573873970
The full range of history, explication, design and implementation of taxonomies is the subject of this informative, plain-spoken and timely book by Heather Hedden, a freelance taxonomist and owner of Hedden Information Management. Hedden is an experienced taxonomist, working for a variety of private sector information providers as well as information-intensive industries, and has presented and conducted workshops in taxonomy development internationally. She is also an instructor in taxonomy development through the continuing education program at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston.
Hedden constructs the book logically in 12 chapters with four appendices. The book can be broken into roughly four major parts, with Chapters 1-7 explaining what taxonomies are and who creates them, followed by chapters outlining the nuts and bolts of taxonomies - terms and relationships between terms - as well as software utilization in creating taxonomies. Readers will be surprised to note how long taxonomies have been in use (centuries) and how much they are incorporated into our daily lives. Eleven figures in Chapter 1 alone illustrate the assorted taxonomy types discussed, and the examples...