Product Description
Taxonomies have been fundamental to organizing knowledge and information for centuries.Now they are the backbone of well organized information systems and the lynchpin of findability in an online world.This book is the first taxonomy primer to present how to design, create, apply and maintain structured vocabularies, including taxonomy, thesauri, ontology and folksonomy, specifically for digital information. This comprehensive and accessible guide explains how to make sure both content creators and content consumers are speaking the same language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great book
This is a great book. It is written in a simple and clear language, yet it is far from being simplistic or shallow. It strikes a good balance between WHAT, HOW and WHY of taxonomies catering mostly to the big-picture-loving, philosophically-minded audiences. This is not a technical guide on how to createtaxonomies. Instead, the author explores various issues that plague the world of information / content management (including search, retrieval and structuring) and provides an overview of the most fundamental concepts and methods designed to alleviate those problems.Hence taxonomies are not treated as the panacea but rather as one of the better tools one could use to mitigate some of the pain. This book is fun to read. It is filled with all kinds of meaningful examples, diagrams and pictures and in the end it produces what it claims to produce - an enhanced understanding of the subject matter.

Beyond Google -- Good Introductory Resource for the Aspiring Knowledge Engineer
A good introduction to building conceptual taxonomies to organize information.My interest is primarily legal in nature I found the following article a good secondary resource and my main stimulus for buying (and reading) this book: [...] Trying to organize my own thoughts (my blog) has become progressively more complicated [...] using keywords and topical guides are difficult (the tower of babel provides a good analogy and apt cover illustration).Massive information overload makes work so much harder: (1) difficult to find appropriate references, (2) difficult to build upon the intellectual capital of others in your company, and (3) the lack of a conceptual framework to hold a given topical area makes retaining a working knowledge of the information more difficult.I am particularly interested in legal taxonomic research.I picked up a copy of this book to fill in the gaps in my own knowledge on the subject: there are a lot of excellent research papers on the application of legal taxonomies.I recommend this book (especially in the e-discovery space) that are frustrated by gigabytes of potentially useful information and how to separate the wheat from the chafe.

Just use Google!
The book aspires to teach a reader everything about building enterprise taxonomies. There are chapters dedicated to managing the project of taxonomy' building, procedures one should follow to refine terms and so on. At the same time, author describes what XML is, what are the tables in the database and even tries to give the reader some understanding of object-orientation. Obviously, the book ends up barely scratching the surface in all the areas it talks about. Quite frankly, I could not figure out who's the target audience for this book. I went as far as reading the bios of the reviewers with giving the book positive reviews, unfortunately that didn't help me understand the situation.
On top of that, author looks at everything from the usability to web search point. Nothing on the surface of the book prepared me for that and there are so many other areas where people need taxonomy and ontology, machine reasoning being heavily used one.
At last, but not at least, the book is monumentally, terminally boring. Government manuals and regulations would certainly beat it, but this book could give those a fair fight.
I suggest looking at the table of content and googling for most interesting terms. That will save you a lot of time and money.

Good, clear recommendations for strategy, excellent primer
Of all the canonical books on enterprise information management, such as Rockley's or Rosenfeld and Morville's, Stewart's recent book speaks with less authority but gets the message across in a more precise, terse, and actionable way. For good or not, Stewart does not get mired in conceptual quibbles and does not break any new ground. Unlike when Information Architecture and the World Wide Web was first introduced, Building Enterprise Taxonomies has not launched a revolution of practice and thought. Yet, Building Enterprise Taxonomies isn't really an in-the-trenches technical book either, it describes the technologies but never bothers to give you exact instructions on how to implement the strategy it sets out. So, being neither a ground-breaking conceptual book nor a technical how-to, what does Building Enterprise Taxonomies offer? A lot, actually.

More than anything, Building Enterprise Taxonomies is a first-rate resource for decision making--either helping toformulate your own strategy or providing framing arguments for convincing reluctant executives and stakeholders. Stewart does not take it for granted that people in purchasing roles will understand the value of an enterprise taxonomy; he spends considerable time offering ways to frame the decision, in addition to providing current research data (both economic and process-oriented). Building Enterprise Taxonomies would make an excellent companion to a technical resource: first you frame the situation with Stewart's data and logic, then you roadmap the process with his strategy recommendations, familiarize yourself with the technology with his jargon-free descriptions, and then find a technical manual (or hire a developer) to make the ideas come to reality. For example, in chapter 4 Stewart recommends the development of a content model, as part of an overarching content management strategy, and makes a convincing case for its development, but he never describes the exact process. It's surely a tough balance to strike, seeing both the forest and the trees, and in general Stewart gets the balance right, at least right enough for a reasonably technically-savvy information architect to benefit.

Although Stewart eschews technical jargon, he does clearly favour a particular sort of rhetoric. Perhaps in an effort to reinvigorate the field with its roots, Stewart tends to describe the conceptual issues in terms familiar to library and information science studies. As a librarian, I think he is both historically and conceptually correct, but some translation may have to occur when presenting this information to some computer science types. For example, in chapter 3 Stewart describes the variants and components of a taxonomy and refers to the parts in what are clearly their library names: synonym rings, authority files, etc. Further, Stewart describes facets not by their logical and digital parts, but rather as a librarian would. This kind of straight-forward language is useful in an enterprise setting, however, since it highlights aspects that are of central concern to corporate issues, such as the instability of information, the pace of change, the requirement for authority, the need for speed, and so on. Stewart does bring newer (but now "traditional") information architecture concepts and strategies into a library melee. For example, Stewart's description of card sorting (chapter 6) is very useful, and while news to a librarian, is old hat to an information architect.

The more "technical" sections of Building Enterprise Taxonomies are precise in terms of naming and recommending technologies for strategy, but broad in terms of instruction for implementation. Because Stewart describes technologies by their precise and historically-contingent names, in 5 years Building Enterprise Taxonomies is going to look as dated as those old books with the diskette in the back cover that you find for 25 cents. The issues are sure to still be relevant, but any future peoples will have to update the names and conventions. Stewart gives ANSI/ISO names and numbers where appropriate (chapter 5, factoring and term construction), mentions software packages by name (chapter 6), and describes not merely core technologies such as XML but specific implementations of the logical models (chapter 9, RDF/OWL).

Building Enterprise Taxonomies is a fairly short book, and covers a lot of material, which means Stewart often has to gloss over important details. Stewart does a great job of conceptually linking disparate ideas (e.g., his typology of metadata in chapter 2), but it frequently seems too quick and too simple. Building Enterprise Taxonomies certainly does not read like an academic book, it's cavalier about facts and recommendations, and while it presents a persuasive thesis, it certainly doesn't tackle the critics or alternatives (especially in chapter 1).

The physical book is well constructed and utilitarian in design. The typography is simple and borderline inelegant, but gets the job done. There are very few editorial errors or typos, although a few references to figures and images are mixed-up or missing. References are collected in chapter-specific sections at the back of the book, and the index is decent if not sometimes a little long in the tooth for broad categories. Any slight issues with the index are not a problem if you actually familiarize yourself with the content of the book, since the chapters are clear and well organized, which allow you to easily flip to the appropriate section (after all, Building Enterprise Taxonomies is hardly a canonical reference book, it reads more like a story than a technical manual). Stewart includes many useful diagrams and examples (chapter 8 on RDF is one of the best pictorial descriptions I have ever seen).

Overall Building Enterprise Taxonomies is good book. There are some slight flaws, but it's more a matter of balance than egregious errors. I disagree with some of the balance at times, but another person may find Stewart's balance spot on. Stewart's advice is straight-forward and far from revolutionary, but you'll have a difficult time finding a better primer, and it is a useful reference for ready-to-go strategy advice. Stewart offers tried-and-true advice that is neither full of hype nor outmoded. Stewart clearly believes in certain technologies (such as XML, which is a leitmotif throughout), but I think his thesis is a sound one.

(The copy of the book for review was supplied by the author to mefree of charge.)

For a chapter by chapter review, visit my blog entries at: http://www.iqdupont.com/blog/category/building-enterprise-taxonomies

Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (VOICES)

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

but Mokita Press should hire a proofreader
As it is the first book I have read on taxonomies I cannot compare it to others, but I found it fairly readable.It includes many examples and illustrations which aid in understanding the text.The quotes at the beginning of chapters and some of the sidebars add a little welcome levity to a dry topic while sometimes adding insight as well.My only complaint is that this is the most poorly proofread book I have ever encountered, with an inordinate number of the kinds of errors that a spell-checker might miss but a human editor would be expected to correct. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a durable, useful, and transportable 'pocket version' of the soil manual. This paperback edition is bound in sewn signatures, like a hardback book, and the paper cover is laminated for durability. This edition is ideal for field work, as it is easily transportable and will not fall apart when taken into the field or when wet.Keys to Soil Taxonomy offers the latest available soil classification information, contains eighteen chapters, and includes and appendix and an index. ... Read more

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Product Description
Identifying trees and shrubs by their scientific name is an essential component of the professional skills of foresters and other types of environmental scientists. This book is an ideal guide for learning procedures as well as a reference book for field use. Written at a more sophisticated, professional level than most field guides, this book also explains the rationale of taxonomic classification systems and explains how plant types are linked to the whole forest ecology. ... Read more

Product Description
Classic textbook first published in 1959 and updated in 1967, Taxonomy of Flowering Plants was created to provide a factual and simplified account of basic principles needed by beginning students in a course in taxonomy together with illustrated descriptions of more than a hundred families of flowering plants representative of the North American flora. The text assumes that the students have had some introduction to plant science. It is intended for undergraduate students in the study of agronomy, range management, forestry, wildlife management and conservation.The text is divided into three parts: Part I, dealing with historical and theoretical aspects and with terminology and morphology; Part II, dealing with orders and families of monocotyledons; and Part III, dealing with orders and families of dicotyledons. ... Read more

Product Description
Thoroughly field-tested and used in a wide variety of educational environments, Marzano's Taxonomy reflects the most current research and today's movement to standards-based education. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent resource to Standards-Based Teaching!
One again, Dr. Marzano has clarified for us how to effectively teach to the standards through a new lens of teaching our students "thinking skills."I have often found Bloom's Taxonomy hard to implement with my students because it seemed that I struggled in creating lessons that challenged my students thinking. I believe that we absolutely need to find ways to effectively educate 21st Century students with 21st Century tools.

Dr. Marzano clearly describes the differences between the New Taxonomy and Bloom's: when learning new information, it does not always occur in a sequential, level of difficulty process(Bloom's);instead, acquiring new information is initiated by the Self-system (New Taxonomy), which is controlled by our beliefs, values, personal goals, etc.For students to learn new information, they must make the decision that the information is beneficial to them. As educators, we are always looking for opportunities to make our lessons engaging and that motivate students towards higher order thinking skills...The N.T explains how to do this.

Additionally, Dr. Marzano shows how to connect the N.T to the standards, which ensures that my lessons are standards-based and that I meet students' learning needs as well.

I would caution that the book is written to explain in great detail the research behind the New Taxonomy and the intricate details within each cognitive thought process; however, I believe that once you get through Chapters 1 & 2, you should have a clear understanding of the research and skip to other chapters that impact teaching and learning.

Great Book to use for Instructional Design
We are reviewing our standards and assessments. This has been a great book to use in both PE and Health.

Typos
This book has several typos and other editing errors.Errors make it hard to follow. ... Read more

Product Description
Educators have come to embrace the classification system for the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains for teaching. However, with the advent of multimedia, interactive, student-focused, instructional technologies, the need to push the envelope of teaching with technology has surfaced – a new domain for technology is needed to take advantage of this newest strategy for teaching and learning.Many educators accept teaching with technology as perhaps the most important instructional strategy to impact the classroom since the introduction of the textbook. The Taxonomy for the Technology Domain suggests a new classification system that includes literacy, collaboration, decision-making, infusion, integration, and technology. As with most taxonomies, each step offers a progressively more sophisticated level of complexity by constructing increasingly multifaceted objectives addressing increasingly complex student learning outcomes.The Taxonomy for the Technology Domain affects all aspects of how technology is used in elementary and secondary classrooms, corporate training rooms, and higher education classrooms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A major soporific but indispensable for identification.
This was my secondary text for Mycology 410 in grad school many moons ago (late sixties).Now with a new microscope on the way I thought I'd take a look-see of this, my old reliable companion.I remember in grad school we called this text "the snoozer" because it is a turgid read but is EXTREMELY useful for identifying fungi.One does not read the text cover to cover except the overviews of each class.However, if you have some fungi in need of identification then this book is great.

I understand that now there are many other better books available but for a RELIABLE and solid source I turn to Bessey every time.Yes, the book is quite dated but for most of the common fungi that one comes across this will suffice.

I remember we used to dread it when Dr. Govindu assigned readings from Bessey.But those assignments proved very useful because the text avoids superficiality and demands throughness before coming to a conclusion. Now I realize why the good doctor tortured us with those readings. The book is out of print but if you come across a used copy don't pass it up. ... Read more

Product Description
Taxonomy: Evolution at Work unfolds as a story explaining the strategies in which the different plant groups evolved over time and their struggle for survival by developing new and better characters. The problems faced by the primitive group of land plants are explained and the methods by which the plants intelligently outwit the adversaries such as insects, herbivores, parasites etc. or adverse environmental situations are described. The adaptations thus achieved by the plants made them an evolved taxon. The plants of this taxon, in turn, when faced by new unfavorable situations, elaborated still better characters and formed a third taxon. Similarly fourth, fifth and the n th taxa evolved. All plant groups are described in terms of their successful adaptational characters (intelligence!) and the study of these processes is the study of evolution at work and this is precisely the subject of taxonomy. ... Read more

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Although one of the earliest of biological disciplines, plant taxonomy remains an important and relevant aspect of modern botany. A disproportionate emphasis on the practice of plant taxonomy has to some extent caused the science to be seen solely as the activity of plant identification. This book attempts to redress the balance by providing an introduction to the taxonomic theory upon which the identification procedure is based. The second edition has been completely revised and updated by the author and edited by Norman Robson to reflect the rapid advances which have occurred in plant taxonomy since publication of the first edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Missing pages
I bought the book and didn't realize it had missing pages until I got to class and my teacher started saying pictures and text were on certain pages, but the pages were missing. It had several times where about five pages were torn out.

Poor Editing
This book has a lot of errors in it: typos, incorrect page numbering in index, stating chapter numbers in text when no such chapter numbers exist. Very poor! When I reported it to the publishing company rep she gave me the author's phone number. Ha! That should be her job to get the corrections made.

good in information, bad in binding and typos
The information in this book is well organized and easy to understand, with many diagrams. Unfortunately, after three weeks of use, the binding started coming undone, pages falling out, entire sections of the book are sticking out. The index was bound wrong, such as when it goes from S to the end of T then Z then back to the rest of S. There are many typos and incorrect information based on these typos, such as numbers being off or words misspelled. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

The botany of peonies
This book is in a traditional format for taxonomy.It is more for the scholar than the peony lover.No color photos.This treatment of peonies has not been done for many years, and a lot of more recent observations have been incorporated.Despite its origins in China, the book is in English, nicely done.Illustrations are line drawings.I'm glad to have this addition to my library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

taxometrics
firstly i listen great admiration this book, i wish to see it and read it. ... Read more

Product Description
The definitive study of grasses, whether native or non-native, growing in the wild in Wisconsin. Includes meticulous descriptions, techniques, maps, and illustrations for locating and identifying these grasses, expert analysis, and a detailed glossary and index. ... Read more

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This book has been distributed in all 50 states and 44 foreign countries. It includes 2-1/2" by 3-1/2" color photographs of seeds of 192 weedy plants, the description of each seed and its life span, a detailed identification key, and a glossary of terms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Owned my copy since 1981.
I would give it higher marks and actually compromised on not giving it a 3 star rate. Why because of the plastic comb binding. I hate it. I've had to cut new combs down to replace the old that often gives up in heat or over time. If you carry it on the road or as a field guide a car can get hot which relaxes the comb. I am now looking to rebind with plastic coil or wire coil because I'm so tired of the frustration with the plastic comb. The price of this book is reasonable so you do get your moneys worth. The author was ahead of his time & it would have been nice if he had produced or expanded into other volumes and improved the photograph work as technology improved too. I relied on Delorit's book among others while learning this profession. And yes I still refer to it today. But please upgrade it's method of binding.....even if it means charging 1-2 more dollars per book.

illustrated taxonomy manual of weed seeds
The work is a scholarly one, and the keys are user friendly.The photographs for verification are excellent.

high quality photographs and detailed descriptions
This book provides clear, photographs of numerous weed seeds found throughout the country.It is as completely useful for seed identification study today as when it was first produced in 1970. ... Read more