Provider services are categorized using taxonomy terms in order to maximize the chances of users or citizens finding the resources most appropriate to their needs. The process of linking taxonomy terms and provider services is known as indexing.
It's important that indexing is performed in a standard and transparent manner. In order to support this aim, AIRS has published guidelines with respect to indexing for organizations subscribing to the AIRS/211 LA County Taxonomy. CPM supports these indexing principles, and helps the resource manager index services accordingly.
Indexing of provider services is performed by the resource manager by selecting terms to add to a provider service. Each provider service can be indexed with a single term or multiple terms. The terms which can be associated to the provider service should either describe:
Compound indexing refers to the act of combining (or linking) two or more Taxonomy terms to form a "compound" term that represents a single service. This is generally used where a resource can be categorized both by a type of service and a target population, or by a type of service and a facility type.
Examples are "Food Pantries * Women" to index a food pantry that targets women, or "Adolescent/Youth Counseling * At-Risk Youth * Girls" to index a counseling program for at-risk girls.
An index can also be removed from a provider service if it is for some reason no longer appropriate to categorise the service in that way.
The example given in the next section illustrates an example of compound indexing.