Knowledge organization

Knowledge organization (KO) (or "organization of knowledge", "organization of information" or "information organization") is a branch of Library and Information Science (LIS) concerned with activities such as document description, indexing and classification performed in libraries, databases, archives, etc. These activities are done by librarians, archivists, subject specialists as well as by computer algorithms. KO as a field of study is concerned with the nature and quality of such knowledge organizing processes (KOP) (such as taxonomy and ontology) as well as the knowledge organizing systems (KOS) used to organize documents, document representations and concepts.

There exist different historical and theoretical approaches to and theories about organizing knowledge, which are related to different views of knowledge, cognition, language, and social organization. Each of these approaches tends to answer the question: “What is knowledge organization?” differently.

Traditional human-based activities are increasingly challenged by computer-based retrieval techniques. It is appropriate to investigate the relative contributions of different approaches; the current challenges make it imperative to reconsider this understanding.

The leading journal in this field is Knowledge Organization published by the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO). See also "Lifeboat for Knowledge Organization".

One widely used analysis of organizational principles summarizes them as by Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, Hierarchy (LATCH).

Among the major figures in the history of KO, which can be classified as “traditional”, are Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) and Henry Bliss (1870-1955).

Dewey’s goal was an efficient way to manage library collections; not an optimal system to support users of libraries. His system was meant to be used in many libraries as a standardized way to manage collections.

An important characteristic in Henry Bliss' (and many contemporary thinkers of KO) was that the sciences tend to reflect the order of Nature and that library classification should reflect the order of knowledge as uncovered by science:

Natural order --> Scientific Classification --> Library classification (KO)

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