The Accidental Taxonomist is the most comprehensive guide available to the art and science of building information taxonomies. Heather Hedden—a leading taxonomy expert and instructor—walks readers through the process, displaying her trademark ability to present highly technical information in straightforward, comprehensive English.

In this fully revised third edition, Hedden adds an entirely new chapter on ontologies, emphasizes the SKOS model of concepts over the traditional thesaurus model of terms, and provides new insights into taxonomy development techniques. She presents fresh survey data; new screenshots and examples; and updated information on software, career opportunities, and resources for taxonomists. Drawing on numerous real-world examples, she explains how to create concepts and relationships, design taxonomy structures, select taxonomy management software, create taxonomies for manual vs. automated tagging, plan and manage taxonomy projects, adapt taxonomies to various user interfaces, and more.