Patent ID: 7650327

Claim:
A computerized method for managing taxonomic information to facilitate retrieval of information, wherein information includes at least one of the following another name for an organism, a classification for an organism, taxonomic data for an organism, and/or other data related to an organism, comprising: identifying a first name that specifies an organism; determining if the first name corresponds to a name entry in a names table; identifying a first taxonomic identifier of the name entry; determining if the first taxonomic identifier is included in a classification entry in a classification table allowing taxa to be organized according to more than one classification, wherein each entry in the classification table associates the first taxonomic identifier with a classification identifier, a relationship attribute, and a second taxonomic identifier, and wherein the classification table is included in a database of classifications configured to accommodate alternative classifications and help determine a classification for the organism, wherein the database of classifications includes a reference table in which each entry associates a classification identifier with a taxon that represents the root of the classification; identifying the second taxonomic identifier of the classification entry; and based on the second taxonomic identifier, identifying a second name; retrieving the information based on at least the first and/or second name.