International Society for Knowledge Organization

The International Society for Knowledge Organization (also referred to by its abbreviation ISKO) is the principle professional association for scholars of knowledge organization, knowledge structures, classification studies, and information organization and structure. Founded in 1989, ISKO's mission is "to advance conceptual work in knowledge organization in all kinds of forms, and for all kinds of purposes, such as databases, libraries, dictionaries and the Internet." An interdisciplinary association, ISKO's worldwide membership draws from fields such as information science, philosophy, linguistics, library science, archive studies, science studies, and computer science. ISKO "promotes research, development and applications of knowledge organization systems that advance the philosophical, psychological and semantic approaches for ordering knowledge; provides the means of communication and networking on knowledge organization for its members; and functions as a connecting link between all institutions and national societies, working with problems related to the conceptual organization and processing of knowledge."

The Society publishes the quarterly academic journal Knowledge Organization, and it holds an international conference every two years. It officially recognizes national chapters in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. ISKO cooperates with international and national organizations such as UNESCO, the European Commission, the International Organization for Standardization, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, the American Society for Information Science and Technology, the Networked Knowledge Organization Systems/Services, and the International Information Centre for Terminology.

Knowledge Organization (journal)

Founded in 1973, Knowledge Organization (sometimes abbreviated as KO) is the official quarterly double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal of ISKO. It was formerly known as International Classification until 1993, when the title changed to its current form. Published in English, the Society describes the journal's scope this way:

In each issue, experts from many countries comment on questions of the adequate structuring and construction of ordering systems and on the problems of their use in providing access to the information contents of new literature, of data collections and survey, of tabular works and of other objects of scientific interest. Contributions: (1) clarify theoretical foundations (general ordering theory, philosophical foundations of knowledge and its artifacts, theoretical bases of classification, data analysis and reduction); (2) describe practical operations associated with indexing and classification, as well as applications of classification systems and thesauri, manual and machine indexing; (3) trace the history of knowledge organization; (4) discuss questions of education and training in classification; and (5) problems of terminology in general and with respect to special fields.

External links

International Society for Knowledge Organization hompage