Knowledge Organization Resources

We have acknowledged members' wish for readily accessible, dependable tools and techniques that can aid their everyday tasks. In this vein, we have gathered pertinent sources and arranged them into distinct sections. This arrangement should facilitate a progression from gaining insight into the field of Knowledge Organization (KO), to comprehending its processes, and ultimately delving deeper into the extensive literature on this rich topic.

Tailored to members' requirements, these resources encompass the activities and tools used by information professionals responsible for making recorded knowledge accessible to those who need it. Consequently, they address both facets of Information Retrieval: content description and searching.

See below how these resources are organised. As the project is continuously evolving  we welcome comments and suggestions. To contribute, please contact Sylvie Davies at chair@iskouk.org.

Part 1 - Introduction to Knowledge Organization offers a range of sources, from a basic mind map to an extensive Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organization (IEKO). This material helps one become acquainted with the field of Knowledge Organization: its origins, principles, methods, and its outputs, known as controlled/structured vocabularies, so called Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS). These systems encompass classifications, thesauri, taxonomies, ontologies, knowledge graphs, and more.

Part 2 - Examples of Knowledge Organization Systems provides examples of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) that serve as pre-existing tools for organizing information within particular domains. Most of these examples are drawn from the BARTOC registry which offers a wealth of sources relating to controlled vocabularies.

Part 3 - Guides to Building Knowledge Organization Systems addresses the know-how of building a Knowledge Organization System: from identifying concepts within a document or domain, to labelling them, and then organizing these concepts into a structured system, showing semantic relationships between them. Mastering these techniques is crucial for developing one's own Knowledge Organization System (KOS) when existing systems do not meet specific requirements.

Part 4 - Applications of Knowledge Organization covers the diverse applications of Knowledge Organization, focusing on the usage of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) in the description of and search for information, with the creation of metadata for information retrieval as one of its most common uses. This section also provides access to resources that address broader issues of managerial and socio-cultural nature.

Part 5 - Advanced Publications in Knowledge Organization gives the opportunity to explore the many facets of Knowledge Organization. A large part of this collection has been assembled by ISKO members and are freely accessible on the ISKO website, except for the Knowledge Organization journal, which is available exclusively to ISKO members. It also includes ISKO UK Conference Archives.