Taxonomy Searching Session CCIRC Conference 2008

Taxonomy Searching Session – CCIRC Conference 2008

Introduction – Deb Woods

Overview

 Why  Structure  Types of Terms  Drilldown  Related Concepts  Keywords  Local terms

Why Locating services is important to do quickly. This workshop is designed to help you find what you need quickly, easily and accurately.

The AIRS Standards require our community resources databases to be searchable by subject term. In our case, this is the Taxonomy.

Structure

The taxonomy is made up of _____ terms divided into 11 categories and 5 hierarchical levels. Each and every term has a unique code to identify its place in the taxonomy.

1. Basic Needs 2. Consumer Services 3. Criminal Justice and Legal Services 4. Education 5. Environmental Quality 6. Health Care 7. Income Support and Employment 8. Individual and Family Life 9. Mental Health Care and Counselling 10. Organizational/Community/International Services 11. Target Populations

B Basic Needs BD Food BD-1800 Emergency Food BD-1800.8200 Specialty Food Providers BD-1800.8200-250 Formula/Baby Food

Further, the taxonomy contains different types of terms 1. Organization/Facility Type – what this agency IS (see also Community Care Facilities/Arrangements)

2. Service Terms – what this agency DOES

3. Modality/Delivery Format – HOW this agency does what it does

4. Target Populations – WHO this agency serves

What you should and shouldn’t find – primary vs. phantom, secondary

As an indexer, your job would be to classify your records in the taxonomy. All records should contain every type of term (we’ll talk about exceptions in a minute).

Let’s look at a residential addictions treatment centre. The term “Residential substance abuse treatment” is a type of organization/facility (BTW, I like to start my descriptions with this term too). That is what the agency IS.

What a residential addictions treatment centre DOES is provide assessment, treatment counseling, support groups,

Example: A job search resource centre for aboriginal women * offers job search training, help with resumes, employment counseling, information about education and training opportunities, workshop series * child care available during workshops

Organization/Facility Type – Comprehensive Job Assistance Centres Service Terms – Job Search Techniques, Resume preparation assistance, specialized information and referral, workshops. NOT child care centres

Target Populations – First Nations Communities AND Women

Drilldown Demonstrate structure

Related concepts Demonstrate list

Search examples:

Example: Retirement Homes -> Adult residential care homes One has no common terms with the other, so why does it come up? Retirement Homes is a “Use Reference” Local terms - When you can’t find it. Example: If you type in “Adult residential care facilities” why do you get no results? It is not a “use reference”

Most of us are using “Early Head Start” for the Ontario Early Years Centres. OEYCs are NOT included in the taxonomy because it is a province-specific term. Other provinces call similar programs by different names. Yet, in most softwares, team leads should be able to modify/add terms and use references. In Kingston, at the request of the OEYCs, I have added “Early Years” as a use reference for this term. This is a local modification, only for use in our particular database and should not be shared nationally.

In another case, I was attempting to index a rare occupation. Kingston has a Town Crier. After a thorough search of the taxonomy, I could find no such term that even remotely qualified. I could have simply created a term to use locally, but this particular term would have applied more than just locally. Knowing there were national and even international Town Crier competitions, I was aware that this was a term that would apply beyond my own little world. So, I posted my question to the taxonomy users group and within a few days, Georgia had created a suitable term which I added to my taxonomy locally until the next taxonomy update which included the term for all to use.

Keywords Less is more Some terms are the same as what you may be used to, and some are totally different, but you should be able to find it anyway with a minimum of frustration if you follow these simple rules:

Enter as few keywords as possible Be prepared to scan a list of results

Example: Client needs help paying for a CPAP machine. What do you search for? CPAP? Assistive Devices? Financial assistance? Equipment? CPAP – nothing Assistive Devices – use Assistive Technology Equipment Financial Assistance – brings up Medical Financial Assistance (use Medical Expense Assistance)

Assistive Technology Provision Options (Modality term) Broader Term: Health Supportive Services Programs that provide access to cognitive/learning aids, control and signaling aids, daily living aids, hearing augmentation aids, mobility aids, prosthetic/orthotic/seating devices, recreational aids, speech aids and/or visual/reading aids on a custom design, loan, rental, sale or resale basis; which provide immediate cash or loans to help people who have insufficient resources to acquire the equipment they need; which modify commercial products to fit an individual's specific needs; or which repair equipment that is broken. Medical Expense Assistance (Service term) Broader Term: Health Supportive Services Programs that pay the health care expenses of people who are unable to obtain necessary care without assistance. Medical expense assistance programs may have age, income, disability, need or other eligibility requirements.

Which term to use?

Example #2: A client needs counseling for a sexual assault.

There are several ways to locate this service in the taxonomy: Enter Counselling and search a list of all counseling services to find one applicable to sexual assault. Enter “Sexual Assault” and search a list of sexual assault services to find a counseling program Enter Sexual Assault counseling and get an exact list of all services.

Depending on the focus of your database and the way your indexing team/personnel you will find variations on the way things are indexed. For example:

Suppose your indexing level only drilled down to “specialized counseling services”. Well, there’s a good chance that if you have a record for a sexual assault counseling service, then the “specialized counseling services” term would/should be linked with a target population term or topical identifier for “sexual assault” or, at the very least, “crime victim”. Do you see the connection here? The search term “counseling” is a common denominator in the service term needed. “Sexual assault” spans a variety of branches including: crime prevention, crisis intervention, consumer complaints, emergency shelter and specialized treatment.

The taxonomy is a constantly evolving entity responsive the continually changing needs of the human services sector. We need only adapt it to our individual needs.