Research Observatory: Knowledge Organization Systems in the spotlight

When
19 May 2021
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM
Location
Zoom

Registration

Attendance is free

Knowledge Organization Systems in the spotlight: collecting and observing KO

This event is organized in collaboration with the ISKO Low Countries chapter.

Observing trajectories in Science: Building the DANS KOS Observatory by Gerard Coen

Presentation slides

Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) include a wide variety of schemas ranging from ontologies, to classifications, thesauri, taxonomies, semantic networks, etc. These schemas can be updated and revised (or conversely become obsolete or lost) and are therefore prone to change over time. A wish expressed frequently by the research front in the KO community was for an “observatory” of KOSs. In 2017, via the KNAW Visiting Professor programme, DANS began to focus more on understanding how KOSs change over time, how they can be archived, how version identification and control can be addressed, and also, how KOSs can be aligned to the ‘FAIR’ Data Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). This research ambition coupled with community interest lead to the creation of the KOSo (Knowledge Organization Systems Observatory). Concretely, the observatory involves the identification of KOSs within the social sciences and humanities or the life sciences. KOSs have been described and ordered in the observatory through a process of empirical association in order to resist the potential pitfall of already organizing these resources through the lens of other KOSs (e.g. already describing the KOS in terms of existing controlled vocabularies). The DANS KOSo employs both metadata terms and formal classifications, using the Information Coding Classification in a synthetic format together with the KO Literature Classification, thus rendering for each KOS a domain-centric term faceted with a KOS-form term. Additionally, we classify domains using the NARCIS Classification, which is a framework to represent the research foci of the Dutch national research infrastructure.

Looking both ways, BARTOC then and now as it prepares for the future of Knowledge Organization by Uma Balakrishnan & Jakob Voss

Presentation slides

Basic Register of Thesauri, Ontologies & Classifications (BARTOC). It is the largest online directory of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS), that provides free access to the metadata of more than 3,000 terminologies in 20 different languages. BARTOC unifies different vocabulary services on a single platform and enhances the visibility of the existing KOS in various domains. The initiative was founded and developed by Andreas Ledl at the Basel University Library, Switzerland in 2013. In 2020 the Register was moved to and is being hosted by the head office of the common library network, VZG in Göttingen under a new technical infrastructure developed within the framework of the project coli-conc. This presentation will give an overview of the BARTOC project, its history and will provide an update on its services, especially with regard to the project coli-conc and elucidate the latest technology implemented by the VZG.

The event took place over Zoom and was attended by 57 participants from 26 countries.