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8th ISKO France conference, Lille, 27-28 June 2010 .
Metadata about what ?Distinguishing between ontic, epistemic,
and documental dimensions in KO
Claudio Gnolivice-president, ISKO
University of Pavia. Science and Technology Library
International ISKO
(Fidelia had just left !)
ISKO regional chapters
knowledge organization
= Wissensordnung= organisation des connaissances | du savoir= organizzazione della conoscenza | del sapere= organisación del conocimiento= ...
Focused on the subject content of knowledge items
KO KM (gestion des connaissances)
KO KR (représentation des connaissances)
Structure of the KO discipline
KO theory e.g. levels theory
KO systems (KOS) e.g. CDU
KO representation KR e.g. SKOS
KO applications KM e.g. your digital library
KO systems (KOS)
• keyword sets• folksonomies• taxonomies• subject headings lists• thesauri
• classification schemes
• ontologies sophistication,• ... hence cost!
Traditional KO
bydisciplines:
• Theology• Philosophy• Literature• ...
Many new media...
How to organize knowledge in them ?
“Theology” ??“Literature” ?? ...
Scope of KO
What is a knowledge item (a document) ?
1st attempt:
Everything that conveys knowledge
Then even, say, a cactus is a document ?!
Scope of KO
But everything can be a sign of something other ...
[semiotics]
E.g. a plant conveys knowledgeabout local climate
Normally not. However, a cactus in a botanical garden is a document
!
Scope of KO
Everything that intentionallyconveys knowledge
Scope of KO
Collections of knowledge items:
• libraries• archives• museums, galleries, exhibitions• botanical and zoological gardens• bibliographies, catalogues, directories• maps of research departments • websites, digital libraries• ...
“From the world to the classifier”
[Brian Vickery CG, 2 Aug 2007]
• “The world = Phenomena
• People’s activities = Disciplines, fields of activity
• Reports of activities
• Subjects of reports
• Classification of subjects”
Dimensions of knowledge( reality ) [mystique ?]
phenomena [ontology]
aspects[epistemology]
carriers[bibliography]
collections [library science]
users [sociology]
[cfr. Hjørland & Hartel, Afterword: ontological, epistemological and sociological dimensions of domains, KO, 30 (2003), n. 3-4, p. 239-245]
Dimensions of knowledge
A book has
• a mind ~ phenomena
• a language ~ aspect
• a body ~ carrier
[Ranganathan 1967]
The ontic dimension
( reality )
phenomena [ontology]
aspects (disciplines, domains, activities, theories, approaches, perspectives, ...)
Phenomena vs. disciplines
[Mills & Broughton, BC2. Introduction ..., section 5.5, Butterworths, 1977]
The ontic dimension
Phenomena and disciplines often correspond:
organisms ~ biologyanimals ~ zoologyplants ~ botany
Some call these sub-disciplines, while fundamental disciplines are forms of knowledge, alternative “ways of looking at phenomena of the world”:
science / philosophy / history / art
[Mills & Broughton cit.; Langridge 1992]
The ontic dimension
Phenomena can work better than disciplines
as knowledge units, because they are shared
between
many different media [Gnoli 2010]
starscountrieswines...
“Reality is the basis for the texts of documents;
that is what authors try to describe,
and what searchers are investigating.”[DJ Foskett 1970]
The ontic dimension
... photons, granites, cats, teams, operas, ...
The ontic dimension
... photons, granites, cats, teams, operas, ...
“ building models of entities in reality,
thus for example building models
of the organization of the genome
and not just of information
contained in this or that database
[Barry Smith 2004]
”
Concepts
phenomenaanalyzed into concepts
aspects ( theories )
depend on the current status of knowledge:
their meaning changes in time [Popper; Quine; LaPorte]
all KOSs need revisions
The epistemic dimension
phenomena
aspects[epistemology]
(disciplines, domains, activities, theories, approaches, perspectives, ...)
carriers
... microscopy techniques, semiotics, Marxism, poetry, child education, ...
The epistemic dimension
The Integrative Levels Classification analyzes it into ten epistemic facets:
0 viewpoint, perspective [Beghtol]
01 epoch [Tennis]
02 place03 method [Szostak]
04 theory [Szostak]
05 discipline [traditional KO]
06 culture07 activity field, domain [Vickery, Hjørland]
08 modality, case09 mood, communicative function [Hutchins]
The epistemic dimension
In some knowledge items (poetry, political cartoons), theme is strongly epistemic
[Landbeck C, Issues in subject analysis and description of political cartoons, Proc. 19th Workshop ASIST SIG/CR, 2008,http://dlist.arizona.edu/ arizona/handle/10150/105595]
The documental dimension
aspects
carriers [bibliography s.l.]
collections [library science] pragmatics
users [sociology]
... MPEG formats, dates, durations, file sizes, ...
The documental dimension
The Integrative Levels Classification analyzes it into ten documental facets:
00 document, specimen, knowledge item001 publication time002 publication place003 language004 medium005 section006 author007 target008 commented document009 format
The documental dimension
In some knowledge items, like instrumental music, content is strongly formal,
although phenomena and aspects can also be relevant, e.g. in
Smetana’s Moldau
Dimensions in titles
Lectures on set theory
Handbook of African anthropology
Birdwatching in the Cotentin peninsula : a guide
Front loading
Recommended sequence:
phenomenon > aspect > carrier
... on what ??
Front loading
Subject matter vs. form
phenomenon + aspect ~ subject indexing, semantics
(classmarks, subject headings...)
carrier ~ descriptive indexing
(titles, authors, dates, ...)
Subject matter vs. form
Originally, “facets”are components ofsubject matter [Ranganathan] ...
... but in Web information architecturethey are often meantas components of form [La Barre]
JStor
Subject matter vs. form
form“facets”
Subject matter vs. form
Metadata:• semantic • descriptive
Standards for the “Semantic” Web concern subject contents ...
... but also descriptive metadata,e.g. “ontologies” for description of documents ...
Thesis
There is a need for distinguishingbetween the different dimensions of knowledge items,and to treat each separately in an appropriate way
Leon Manifesto
• interdisciplinarity
• requires some new KOS
• based on phenomena
• allowing to shift between
perspectives
• by analytico-synthetic
techniques
The León Manifesto[ISKO Spain 2007]
Integrative Levels Classification
www.iskoi.org/ilc
Esperimental freely-faceted KOS
Integrative Levels Classification
Treat dimensions as facets beginning by –0
mq03b animals, studied by observationmq03g animals, studied by marking
ft03g proteins, studied by marking
Integrative Levels Classification
Allows for combination of phenomenon, aspect, and carrier [León Manifesto] :
mq03g007u animals, studied by marking, treated for university readers
so that each dimension can be searched and retrievedindependently:
Integrative Levels Classification
Tested with a web bibliography on bioacoustics:
Freely-faceted KO
Allows for free combination of phenomena, aspects, and carriers,
hence for searching them separatelyin creative ways,
thus discovering new combinations ...
E.g.: has method x ever been applied to phenomenon y ?
“Undiscovered public knowledge” [Davies, Szostak]
What is the mission of KO ?
Only describing the status-quo of knowledge
by faithfully reproducing its perspectives
(“theology books”, “literature books”)[literary warrant],
or also favouring new
creative, interdisciplinary uses of knowledge
(“x, from viewpoint of y, applied to z”) ?...
What is the mission of KO ?
... let’s discuss !
Acknowledgements
Tom Pullman (ILC project ; U Cambridge)
Rick Szostak (ILC project ; U Alberta)
Francesca Cattaneo (U Pavia)
