Taxonomies - the basics
What are taxonomies?
A taxonomy is a hierarchically arranged structure of descriptive metadata. This allows users to navigate and filter the content in their archives using these preset metadata structures. The content of a taxonomy can also be used when entering metadata to ensure vocabulary consistency and avoid misspellings and typos.
Anyone can use the metadata taxonomies for navigation so long as taxonomy navigation has been enabled for an archive, but to create the actual taxonomy content (see below) a user needs to be a taxonomy manager.
How to set up taxonomies
Creating a taxonomy is a process that involves several steps. To this end, we have created a step-by-step guide to get you started, shown below.
Planning the taxonomy is crucial to create content that users will easily recognize and be able to use with minimal effort. The checklist for planning taxonomy content outlines some good practices.