Ideas for writing term papers
To think of a topic for a paper as early as possible in the course may help you to understand what is being taught: The course is not a practical course in learning a piece of software or some cataloging rules, it is an academic course, helping you to examine problems in KO and write well-argued papers about those problems. The course and the teachers' individual advice will provide a basis for writing about topics as, for example, those listed below.
You are, of course, welcome to discuss any idea with the teachers!
The following ideas are provided by BH:
To do an evaluation of a specific subject group in a classification system (e.g. UDC, British Standards Institution, 2005). This might be done, for example, by downloading a representative set of bibliographical references and compare terminology in the titles with concepts in the classification system.
Write about a specific approach to KO, and argue for and against its usefulness in a given context (e.g. to examine the arguments for and against using the DDC on the Internet). How to study approaches to KO.
Interpret a bibliometric map of a subject field. Does it reflect the field in a way that corresponds with other ways of organizing the field? How can the structure be explained? (Which factors influence the structure of the map).
Write about KO in a field of your interest. A very fine example of a thesis originally written in this master course and continued as a master thesis is Abrahamsen (2003) "Indexing of Musical Genres". Hernández de Fuhr (2006) "Sexuality a domain" is also a fine example.
Write a book review of a book in knowledge organization (modern or classic). Such a review should interprete the book's theoretical perspective and relate it to other theoretical perspectives.
Write a book review of a thesaurus or a classification scheme such as Mills & Ball (2007). The chosen system could be tested by downloading concepts and check if they are included. It could also address the methods that were used (whether they are mentioned or not) and relate the methods to different theoretical perspectives in knowledge organization.
Make an analysis of the controlled vocabulary used by Amazon.com. (cf.
http://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/SPECIFIC%20SYSTEMS/amazon.htm ).
You may choose to write about a specific theoretical or philosophical perspective and its implication for KO. (e.g. feminism, Laudan's theory, semiotic theory, activity theory, Luhmann's systems theory, Marxism, Wittgenstein's philosophy . . .). (Use "Epistemological lifeboat" for an overview of positions. http://www.db.dk/jni/lifeboat/home.htm ).
You may discuss the ideals that knowledge organizing should be "objective" or "neutral". What does it mean? What are the implications of this point of view and of the opposite point of view?
In 2005 was published a new edition of ASIS&T Thesaurus (Redmond-Neal & Hlava, 2005), used in ASIS&T digital library. What approach to knowledge organization was used in the construction of this tool? Could other approaches possibly improve it? (In which ways?). Examine this thesaurus from the theoretical perspectives taught in the course.
You may choose any medium, for example, the indexing of pictures.
The problems with indexing monographs. What progress have been made, and how can we improve scholars' access to information in monographs? How are libraries performing compared to, for example, Amazon.com?
You may examine a principle in KO, for example, the principle of "literary warrant". What been written about it? Where and how is it being used? Exactly what does it mean? How does indexers in reality relate to the literature? (You may do a small empirical investigation, e.g. by interviewing).
Examine and discuss some standards and guidelines for indexing, subject analysis, or thesaurus construction, cf. Standards
Discuss the possibilities for human indexers to compete with automatic indexing.
Discuss the implications of digital networking for knowledge organization in individual libraries (or other memory institutions). (For example has the State Library in Aarhus, Denmark ceased classifying its books because Dewey codes are available from Library of Congress). You could, for example, interview different library managers on their thoughts.
What should LIS-professionals learn in order to be able to play important roles in knowledge organization?
Laymen as knowledge organizers (consider also: Folksonomies)
Different kinds of knowledge organizing systems (KOS). What is the progress? Based on, among others, Garshol (2004), discuss the potentials of advanced forms of KOS to improve information services compared to more traditional KOS.
Is the quality of indexing in LIS-institutions good enough? Examine the literature, observe for yourself, and try to draw a conclusion and propose further actions.
Are the publishers taking over the knowledge organizing activities from the library sector? What is the role of libraries in KO if publishers provide restricted access to full text documents?
Open access and the role of LIS-professionals.
The research literature (e.g. bibliographic networks) as a self-organizaing system.
Is the idea of "the semantic web", i.e., that computers can understand the meaning of the words, compatible with theories of language and semantics?
Interoperability among knowledge organization systems. It is an old dream to make knowledge organizing fields interoperable. To what degree has this problem been solved? What are the underlying problems in the nature of knowledge and language?
List some highly cited authors, for example in LIS (or write their names from a bibliometric map). Interview recently educated persons (i.e. in LIS) or older students. Do they know the persons? If not, whom are to blame? The bibliometric method? The education? Or?
The future of knowledge organization? (Discuss scenarios, such as "doomsday scenario", see: http://www.db.dk/bh/Core%20Concepts%20in%20LIS/articles%20a-z/forecasts_in_information_science.htm )
Describe the social structure in a discipline of your own choice (preferable the one, you know best, e.g. Library and Information Science). Use the distinctions and terminology from, for example, Dogan (2001): Specialization and recombination of specialties in the social sciences.
Literature:
Abrahamsen, K. T. (2003). Indexing of Musical Genres. An Epistemological Perspective. Knowledge Organization, 30(3/4), 144-169.
British Standards Institution (2005). Universal Decimal Classification. Standard Edition. Vol. 1-2. London: British Standards Institution. http://www.bsi-global.com/ICT/UDC/moreabout.xalter
Garshol, L M (2004) Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic maps! Making sense of it all. Journal of Information Science, 30 (4). 378-391. Available online at: http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html
Hernández de Fuhr, B. (2006). Sexuality - a Domain. Thesis prepared for the International Master, Royal School of Library and Information Science. Copenhagen. http://www.db.dk/jni/lifeboat/Domains/sexuality%20a%20domain.pdf
Mills, J. & Ball, C. (2007). Bliss Bibliographic Classification. Class W. The Arts. München: K. G. Sauer Verlag.
Redmond-Neal, A. & Hlava, M. M. K. (Eds.). (2005). ASIS&T Thesaurus of Information Science, Technology, and Librarianship. Third Edition. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc.
Birger Hjřrland
Last edited: 09-03-2007