Taxonomy as a knowledge organisation system for biodiversity information networks.

• Main Author: Chia, Siew Wah.
• Other Authors: Theng Yin Leng
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Library and information science::Libraries::Knowledge management
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/41799
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In view of the numerous valuable information pertaining to biological diversity scattered in various organisations, institutions and private individuals at both national and global levels, it is necessary to ensure that information converge in a network so as to enable easy access and utilisation by all users for various purposes. Taxonomies are the answer to bringing structure, consistency and stability to the chaos of otherwise unstructured information. This study deals with the development of a taxonomy, as an effective knowledge organisation system, for the biological diversity domain to support seamless retrieval of information for varied user types. An assessment of the taxonomy is also carried out by evaluating its usability by novice and expert users. The methodology used to build the taxonomy is based on recommendations from literatures and previous work done. A taxonomy is manually developed and put to the test by both novice and expert users. The findings reveal that both novice and expert users readily accepted the use of taxonomy. Users appreciate the overview of top-level categories that gives them a quick glance of the resources available, enables knowledge discovery while browsing for information and more importantly, ease of use, all of which serves to reiterate the usefulness of taxonomy in enabling access to vast wealth of knowledge. In addition, the intuitive structure of taxonomy and labelling of categories and sub-categories enable users to associate immediately with the content, therefore avoiding confusion and loss of time in searching for information. Generally, novice users may encounter some problem searching for information but this is due mainly to their lack of domain knowledge. A well-designed taxonomy will naturally resolve this issue faced by novice users. Regardless of the level of domain knowledge possessed by users, some form of training on the use of taxonomy will ensure a more enhanced experience for all types of user. Most importantly, a good taxonomy should be flexible enough to handle any changes so that there is no need to recreate it.