[Sigia-l] info architecture basics

[Rodriguez, Chris (CEI-Atlanta)]

Please pardon the amateurish nature of the post, but I am not a professional IA and coming at it from a few directions, so to speak...

I suppose first and foremost I am looking for good (effective, succinct) introductions to information architecture, methods employed and applications. 

Secondly I am looking for a bit of opinion wrt a portal project. In particular, there is some talk surrounding taxonomy. I understand some of the 'technical' aspects (what I've seen referred to as the taxonomy structures themselves), how they are constructed and such. But wrt to these taxonomies in practice, I'm wondering a few things:

- is there any direct correlation between a taxonomy proper and a site architecture (crude sense site layout/mapping)? it seems to me that the latter is driven less so by logical and hierarchical categorization than it is by business need, user experience (needs, perception, etc.), and the taxonomy more so applied to specific (and likely limited) needs within a site development project--say for example those related to hierarchical directories, navigation tools, etc. In general, I perceive the two as more distinct, with taxonomy have more direct influence elsewhere and some confusion resulting from the use (or misuse?) of terms like "site taxonomy".
- if there is a more direct translation, are there any good publications/sources that describe the methods and tools employed?

Any other suggestions wrt the topic would be highly appreciated.

Many Thanks. chris