Knowledge Organization: Bibliography as Synergic Catalyst

Abstract

Knowledge organization is the field of inquiry wherein is studied the nature and order of knowledge that underlies all applications in information. Navigating natural orders, and creating and imposing useful orders, are the province of the domain of knowledge organization. Bibliographic control is an application of knowledge organization in which professionals “control” the arrangement of certain artifacts and their intellectual content for retrieval. Resource description, subject headings and classification are the tools of bibliography exercised especially by information institutions under the rubric of bibliographic control. Not only is a bibliographic record a form of synergic control, the professional culture that maintains the languages and techniques are themselves synergic. Bias is potentially everywhere, yet professional ethics require our institutions to resist it at any cost. An open question remains about what institutions are to do to bridge the gap between bibliographic control and imposing social bias. Another open question is whether more than one ontology (classification) could be applied simultaneously in a virtual catalog. Visualization of knowledge organization systems and components can provide useful navigational maps. From library and museum catalogs to medical and supermarket classifications, knowledge organization systems drive social behavior in every part of human endeavor. And for that reason, the effects of social epistemology can be both beneficial and deleterious. The synergy lies in the concept of cultural warrant.