The AAA’s Director of Publishing, Janine McKenna, is seeking interested volunteers to help with an important taxonomy project. AAA has been involved in a long-term project to develop an anthropology-specific taxonomy to use in all AAA journals in AnthroSource, AAA conferences, etc. This is a total review and revamping of the keywords used in journals, to categorize papers and sessions at AAA conferences, in the member database, and other future projects. The finalized version will also be available for public use. The taxonomy project is intended to update and make more anthropology-sensitive the keywords through which we search and categorize articles, talks, etc., keywords that help define pathways to knowledge. It’s an important project with far-reaching implications, and AAA/CMA need your help.
AAA’s Publishing Futures Committee launched this project in collaboration with Information International Associates (IIA), using Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) as a starting point. IIA is initially building four taxonomies, one for each subfield of anthropology (these will build from HRAF’s OCM codes for cultural materials). Once those are complete, there will also be a separate taxonomy developed from HRAF’s OWC codes for world cultures. In addition to finding librarians to review these draft taxonomies, the Publishing Futures Committee is seeking anthropologists from each subject area. To be sure that the taxonomies address the work and needs within the museum anthropology community, they are seeking museum anthropologists who focus on each subfield to provide guidance and review, making sure there are not any holes or outdated terms. If you are interested in assisting with this project, please contact: Cara Krmpotich cara.krmpotich@utoronto.ca or Janine McKenna jmckenna@americananthro.org
Please also circulate this request to others in the museum world more broadly who would be interested in assisting.
Timeframe: There is a draft now of the biological anthropology taxonomy. The others are expected to be completed in coming months.
