Taxonomy Overview With permission of Findhelp Information Services, Toronto

Taxonomy Overview

With permission of Findhelp Information Services, Toronto

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Acknowledgements

The following content originated from a presentation provided by

Mary Hogan of 211 Connecticut to 211 Ontario, which in turn was

based on one created by Dick Manikowski of Detroit Public

Library and on the model devised originally by Margaret Bruni for

workshops offered at AIRS conferences in the late 1990’s, with

input from Georgia Sales and others. Remember that because

the Taxonomy constantly changes, some of the specific

examples of terms and definitions may no longer be valid

(although what they illustrate will still hold true). (July 2008)

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Goals

• Learn the purpose and structure of

the Taxonomy

• Learn the principles of indexing with

the Taxonomy

• Learn about customizing the

Taxonomy for your local needs

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Goals

• Learn how to start indexing

• Practice what you are learning and

share observations from that

practice

• Help evaluate the workshop and

raise questions that may be helpful

to other data partners

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What is a taxonomy?

A thorough classification system,

that distinguishes concepts, names

those concepts, and puts those

concepts into a hierarchical order.

The botanist Linnaeus (1707-1778)

developed the original taxonomy, a

system of grouping plants and

animals into related families that is

still more or less in use today.

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But a taxonomy of services ??

• Although it classifies “things done” rather than

“things”, the idea has worked surprisingly well.

• It provides a structure for your information, tells

people what is in your information system and

how to find it.

• The Dewey Decimal System used by libraries

throughout the world to catalogue books, is very

similar to the Taxonomy.

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The AIRS/211 L.A. County Taxonomy

• Work on the Taxonomy began at INFO LINE of Los Angeles (now 211 LA County) in 1982 and its first full printed version was completed in 1987. (The Taxonomy is now only available on-line)

• Full name: “A Taxonomy of Human Services: A Conceptual Framework with Standardized Terminology and Definitions for the Field”

• A full-time editor and researcher, Georgia Sales, continually develops the resource, currently encompassing 9,200 terms.

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What are the benefits of the Taxonomy?

• Structure is comprehensive in scope and has a logical and exclusive niche for every concept.

• It’s compatible with the way services are actually delivered.

• It incorporates terminology which is accepted in the human service field.

• Terms are clearly defined and cross referenced.

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• The language and structure are simple.• Its structure is flexible to permit change

and growth.• Users can customize to meet their own

needs.• Believe it or not - there is a $$ savings,

versus maintaining your own system.• It was developed specifically for community

information and referral, and for a computerized environment.

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The Taxonomy’s structure

allows the user to either

broaden a search or narrow a

search, to whatever point

services have been indexed.

Because all terms can be

rolled up, statistics are easier

to collect, as in this example.

Criminal JusticeIndividual and Family Life

Income Security

Health Care

Substance Abuse Services

Mental Health Care and

Counseling

Consumer Services

Basic Needs

Education

Organizational/ Community/ International

Services

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Structure of the Taxonomy

Divides all human and social services into ten Service Categories, with a separate 11th Target Group section:

• B Basic Needs • D Consumer Services • F Criminal Justice and Legal Services • H Education • J Environmental Quality • L Health Care • N Income Support and Employment • P Individual and Family Life • R Mental Health Care and Counseling • T Organizational/Community/International Services • Y Target Populations

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Each section branches into up tosix increasingly narrow classification levels:

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Structure of the Taxonomy – a great example

B Basic Needs

BD Food

BD-1800 Emergency Food

BD-1800.2000 Food Banks

BD-1800.2000-620 Ongoing Emergency Food Assistance

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• Each term has a unique identification number – its Taxonomy code – that represents its exact placement in the hierarchy.

• The codes exist to help computers and indexers understand the relationship between terms. In most packages, one doesn’t actually input codes while indexing. It is not necessary to memorize codes!

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• Each Term (also called a

Preferred Term) has a

code and a precise and

concise definition.

• Use References are

non-preferred terms,

which point to the

preferred terms you

should use.

• See Also References

point to other preferred

terms of potential interest

to your general search.

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TYPES OF TAXONOMY TERMS

•Service terms

•Named program terms

•Facility terms

•Modality terms

• Target population terms

•Orientation/philosophy terms

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Types of Taxonomy Terms

SERVICE TERMS

The core of the Taxonomy, and

by far the most common type of

Term.

Specific activities organizations provide:

Home Delivered MealsJob Training

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NAMED PROGRAM TERMS

A small number of “shortcut” terms for nation-wide, widely

known programs

TANFHead Start

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FACILITY TERMSDescribe what an organization is (not what it does)

HospitalsSenior Citizen Centers

Administrative Entities (TF-0500) is a facility/organizational type term that is particularly useful, for management offices that organize and control activities but do not offer direct services to the public.

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MODALITY TERMS

Reflect the way in which

a service is delivered

Group CounselingAdvocacy

Should link to a service term:

Disability Insurance ~

Advocacy

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TARGET POPULATION TERMSGroups to which a service is aimed

Accident VictimsAdolescentsAfghan Community

Should rarely or never be used on their own. Usually link to a service term, such as:

Crisis Intervention ~ Older Adults

Don’t overuse! They can quickly get way out of hand. If a service is generally for most people, don’t use a target term at all.

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ORIENTATION/

PHILOSOPHY TERMS

A handful of terms that describe a particular philosophy accommodated by a service.

Usually use only when linked to a service term:

Individual Counseling ~ Feminist Organizational Perspective

Advocacy ~ Children’s Issues

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PRINCIPLES OF INDEXING

• Not all the services that an organization offers should be indexed. In fact, some types of services should never be indexed.

• Choose the most specific term available which fully describes what is being indexed

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Principles of indexing

The most important guideline of all:

You should almost always avoid using a

broader term where you’re already using a

narrower term in your database, or vice

versa.

You should pick the level that you want to use

in that particular branch of the Taxonomy,

and stick to it throughout your database.

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For example, to index services that help people with housing expenses, you should choose either the 3rd level term “Housing Expense Assistance” or choose to use only the individual 4th level terms below it:

BH-3800 Housing Expense Assistance

OR

BH-3800.5000 Mortgage Payment Assistance

BH-3800.6500 Property Tax Payment Assistance

BH-3800.7000 Rent Payment Assistance

BH-3800.7250 Rental Deposit Assistance

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Similarly, you need to decide whether you will be using the general 4th level term “Homeless Shelter” (BH-180.850) throughout your database, OR only always use the more specific 5th level terms:

BH-1800.8500 Homeless Shelter

OR

BH-1800.8500-100 Bad Weather Shelters

BH-1800.8500-150 Community Shelters

BH-1800.8500-170 Day Shelters

BH-1800.8500-180 Environmental Hazards Shelters

BH-1800.8500-500 Missions

BH-1800.8500-900 Urban Campsites

BH-1800.8500-950 Wet Shelters

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Linking terms together is an important feature for

enhanced searching. Especially in large

collections, this allows you to zero in on, for

example, meals-on-wheels programs for

Hispanic seniors, with no false hits:

Home delivered meals ~ Hispanic/Latino

community

Basically, this becomes a sort of new term of its

own.

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TYPES OF SERVICES

Primary Services – yes,

index!

• Secondary Services – no…

• Ancillary Services – no…

• Phantom Services – no…

• Indirect Services – no…

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Types of Services

PRIMARY SERVICESEntry point services. These are the only services usually

indexed.

SECONDARY SERVICESServices only available to clients receiving primary services.

Do not index!

For example, a shelter that provides meals for its residents should

only be indexed for the shelter, and not for meals.

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Types of Services

ANCILLARY SERVICESPrimary services that are likely not worth indexing.

Examples:

Newsletters

Speakers/Speakers Bureaus

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Types of Services

PHANTOM SERVICESServices an agency claims to provide but

really does not.

Agency may be over-confident about services they have available, and misrepresent themselves.

Beware of agencies that “do everything.”

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Types of Services

INDIRECT SERVICESActivities that facilitate the delivery of a service by another

agency

Example:United Way provides funding to agencies offering specific

services.But the United Way does not actually offer the service they’re

funding.Only code the agency providing the service.

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Are We Still Awake?

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CUSTOMIZING THE TAXONOMY

• No center has a need for all 9,200

Taxonomy terms, and it is

convenient to carve off (or “de-

activate”) the hundreds or

thousands of terms that are not

relevant to an I&R’s focus.

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Customizing the Taxonomy

• Determine the sections that are

relevant to the types of resources

listed within your I&R.

• Does your I&R offer resources for

the services within every section?

• Can you exclude certain sections?

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• Section by section, determine which sections and/or terms in the Taxonomy can be disregarded.

• What are the inclusion/exclusion criteria for your I&R?

• What types of resources are available within the community

• What type of resources are currently in your databases?

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• Determine the appropriate level of detail.

• How specific are referral requests?

• How quickly does the information change?

• What is the skill level of the staff?

• How detailed is the index of your directory or other products?

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But an even more important rule:

don’t change things just because you

discover you can!

This is especially important if you are part

of a regional or statewide data sharing

system that all agencies stay

synchronized – and make the same

indexing decisions.

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1) Identify primary service

2) Identify most appropriate term to

characterize service

SUMMARY OF INDEXING STEPS

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Summary of Indexing Steps

3) Read the definition

4) Review your customized taxonomy

to confirm that this is a term you are

using

5) Does this level match the level

selected during customization of the

Taxonomy?

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Summary of Indexing Steps

6) Look at the see also references

(Should any of them also be used

to index the agency service?)

7) Do you need a modality, facility

type term, orientation/philosophy,

or target?

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GETTING HELP!

• Join the AIRS Taxonomy group(http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIRS_Taxonomy)

• Visit www.211taxonomy.org, and browse

its many resources.

• Online Introduction to AIRS Taxonomy

course (www.cequick.com/airs) – excellent

interactive 2-3 hour introduction to

indexing with the Taxonomy ($30/person)

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIRS_Taxonomy

Documents

Taxonomy Overview With permission of Findhelp Information Services, Toronto