Interview


A Mastermind of taxonomy


Helen Lippell explains why organisations should learn more about taxonomies, ontologies and metadata – and describes her love of a good quiz


Tell us a little about your background and qualifications… Like many taxonomists, I didn’t train in or plan to move into this field. I was always interested in information. Even as a kid I loved encyclopaedias, dictionaries and lists, so now I joke I was born to do this! My academic background was in Latin and economics – two subjects that, in my opinion, reward methodical thinking, wide reading and understanding how things fit together, whether that is a Roman political system or a national economy. My first job was as a manual indexer of


news. I would apply tags to anything from the Malaysian steel industry to French political news. I loved that these words and little phrases could be so powerful that all this unstructured text from across the globe could be turned into highly tailored feeds for people interested in particular companies, countries, subjects or industries. I moved on from that work to the


automatic indexing side of the operation, where I really got stuck into writing and managing rules for tagging the content. I liked the speed and scale of what could be done once you’d refined the rules, so the technology didn’t get confused by ambiguous or vague words. Since then, I’ve never looked back. I’ve been independent for over a decade, meaning I can work on a wider range of projects in different types of organisations and apply my skills to various digital systems challenges.


You recently edited a book, can you tell us a little about that? When someone from Facet Publishing first suggested I do a book about taxonomies, my initial impulse was to head for the hills because it sounded like such a big commitment. But I felt there was a gap in the ‘canon’ of information management books


18 Research Information Summer 2022


for a practical guide on taxonomy projects from start to end, without replicating the existing detailed or academic literature. I wanted to do something that would be a


useful reference for full-time taxonomists, but also for people in other digital jobs who might encounter taxonomies. I decided very quickly I would prefer to do an edited collection, rather than write the whole thing myself. I came up with my ‘Fantasy Taxonomists’ squad, based on who I knew from my network, and asked them if they’d like to contribute a chapter. It was my goal from the outset to produce


a ‘toolkit’ of insights for all aspects of taxonomy projects. Every project is unique, of course, but this book can arm you with tips, best practices and advice at every stage. I’ve been doing taxonomy work for years and I learned loads from developing the chapters with the authors.


Tell us about your wider work related to taxonomies. There’s a vast number of applications for taxonomies these days. They’ve moved way beyond their roots in cataloguing and libraries to become an essential part of managing digital information. I work on projects to improve search engines, digital asset management, multi-channel content publishing, semantic tagging, data interoperability, and more! I’ve worked in lots of different sectors;


you don’t need to be an expert in a subject to develop strong vocabularies for it. I love applying my skills and professional curiosity to new projects.


What are your wider hopes for the industry over the next 10 years? I hope organisations continue to learn more about the power of taxonomies, ontologies and metadata to improve their products


and services, and improve their internal processes. Businesses in the e-commerce sector are more aware than ever that if they don’t describe their products accurately, fully and in line with their customers’ mental models, those customers will either find an alternative site, or not buy at all. Public sector organisations deal with lots of information coming in from, and going out to, other agencies, as well as circulating inside the organisation. With good tagging, this information can be found, used and reused more easily. Media companies use taxonomies to manage their text, images and videos so that they can be distributed across any number of channels. Organisations generate so much content, data and information, and yet continue to waste this investment because of poor findability, poor business processes and poor understanding of the value of their stuff. I am seeing more and more job postings for taxonomy and semantic skill sets; I hope this trend continues.


Lastly, do you have any fascinating hobbies or pastimes you want to tell us about? My main hobby is quizzing. I have always enjoyed a good pub quiz, but I have taken it to another level in recent years by getting into competitive league quizzing. Like any good sports team, we have been through our share of promotions, relegations, cup runs, heroic last minute wins and heartbreaking defeats. League quizzing was a natural ‘gateway’ to going onto TV quiz shows. I have been on Mastermind twice, Only Connect, Eggheads and have won an episode of the word game, Lingo.


Interview by Tim Gillett


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