Report on Taxonomy Workshop facilitated by Patrick Lambe

“Taxonomies are powerful instruments for breaking down siloes and fostering collaboration and learning - not just for information accessibility and navigation”.

I was one of the fortunate ones who attend Patrick Lambe’s workshop on taxonomy development on 17-18 October 2013. This  a rare opportunity to come my way and I  enjoyed it . It is also  a pleasure to get together with others who enjoy the discipline of taxonomy. The reasons people had come to the workshop were many, some were constructing or revitalising websites, others were looking into devising the structure of content management system or in my case undertaking a review of an existing thesaurus

The workshop followed a set regime of  theory on day one of what is  a taxonomy and the various forms they can take. Day 2 covered the practical aspects of  taxonomy creation. The workshop approach combines presentation of frameworks and proven methods with interactive exercises and opportunities to relate the content back to participants' own organisations. The exercises and experiential teachings really caught my fancy and encouraged my thinking on methodology  and ways to prompt  stakeholder engagement with the taxonomy.  I think an innovative aspect of  Patrick Lambe’s  approach is to stress that the taxonomy is a living system requiring  strong governance and evaluation.

Karna O'Dea