Category Archives: classification schemes

Call for papers: CCQ Special Issue: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Processes for Subject Access

The library community has invested in the development of knowledge organization systems (KOS, such as subject headings, thesauri, taxonomies, classification, etc.) to represent general knowledge or domain-specific knowledge, standardize vocabularies with the ultimate goal to describe information resources and provide effective access to these resources. These knowledge organization systems are of great importance to the subject representation of resource content and subject access to information. Current solutions enable shifting from the traditionally manual processes to the use of technologies in the development of KOS, subject indexing, classification, and retrieval.

 

This special issue of Cataloging & Classification Quarterly (CCQ) will illustrate technologies, methods, and projects that implement semantic web technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, other automated processes, standards and best practices for various stages of knowledge information, including KOS development, indexing and classification, and retrieval and access, with additional attention to ethical and licensing considerations.

Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) in libraries
  • Automated processes for metadata creation
  • Automated processes for quality estimation and quality management
  • Semantic web in knowledge organization
  • Integration of Linked Open Data (LOD) in authorities & knowledge organization systems (thesauri, classifications, ontologies)
  • AI/machine learning in knowledge representation, thesaurus construction, and classification schema development
  • AI/machine learning in subject indexing and classification
  • Automated subject indexing and classification
  • Technologies, standards, and best practices
  • Ethics of AI in knowledge organization
  • KO open data licensing

 

Full call at CCQ

Papers should follow the CCQ Instructions for Authors

We invite you to submit your paper using ScholarOne Manuscripts  by April 30, 2021 for peer review.

Deadlines:

  • Paper submission: April 30, 2021
  • Notification of paper acceptance: July 15, 2021

 

For questions, contact Athena Salaba,  asalaba [at] kent.edu, or Caroline Saccucci, csus [at] loc.gov

 

 

ALA Annual 2018

It’s been about a month since ALA Annual 2018, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, but it’s never too late for a subject-related update! As the CIP and Dewey Program Manager at the Library of Congress, it is both my pleasure and my responsibility to attend many subject-related meetings and programs. The OCLC Dewey Update Breakfast met at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning, as it does every ALA, with an interesting set of presentations on what’s new with the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). Alex Kyrios, OCLC Dewey editor, updated the attendees on changes to the DDC based on Dewey Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) exhibits from electronic meetings EPC-140A and EPC-140B; notable topics included vegan cooking, electronic games, and child rearing, among several others. (Exhibits are proposal documents prepared by OCLC Dewey editors that provide narrative about the proposed changes, usually followed by sample hierarchies with the proposed new notation and/or notes and excerpts from the Relative Index for context; this helps EPC members understand the proposed changes and how those changes would affect the overall DDC.) Alex discussed some new features in WebDewey, such as the link to the DDC 23 Manual in WebDewey and the long-awaited ability for users, like me, to contribute built numbers for editorial vetting. (Now I’ll need to go looking for all the numbers I have built in the 400s to contribute them.) Finally, I gave a talk on the long-standing collaborations between OCLC editors and LC Dewey classifiers. This may come as a surprise to many of you, but the OCLC Dewey editors sit next to the LC classifiers at the Library of Congress, and we meet on a monthly basis to discuss trends, exhibits, and other issues related to the DDC and its application.

As the LC Dewey Liaison to the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services/Cataloging and Metadata Management Section/Subject Analysis Committee, or ALCTS/CaMMS/SAC, or even more simply SAC (read: “sack”) for short, I submit a formal written report and then speak briefly at the meeting on what’s new in the LC Dewey Program. My report is part of a trio of Dewey-related reports: the ALA representative to the EPC gives a report on recent EPC decisions; the OCLC Dewey representative gives DDC and WebDewey updates; and the LC Dewey liaison reports on LC Dewey news. At this meeting, members of various subject-related communities, such as the American Association of Law Libraries, the Art Libraries of North America, and the Music Library Association, give their reports. SAC has also reports from its own subgroups, the SAC Research and Presentation Working Group and the SAC Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies. There is, of course, the report from the IFLA Liaison to SAC, SAA’s own George Prager. Finally, the LC Liaison from the Policy and Standards Division (PSD), Janis L. Young, gives her written and oral report to the committee.

Janis announced at the ALA Annual 2018 SAC meeting that PSD will cancel “multiple” subdivisions from Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) beginning in fall 2018. “Multiple” subdivisions are a special type of subdivision that automatically gives free-floating status to analogous subdivisions used under the same heading. In the example Computers—Religious aspects—Buddhism, [Christianity, etc.], the multiple subdivision is —Buddhism, [Christianity, etc.]. This policy change results from the need to provide unique identifiers for each valid subject string to facilitate linked data. Please contact Janis Young with any questions about this change. Of particular interest to law librarians may be that the Library of Congress Classification schedules KIM-KIP: Indigenous Law: Central America, including a comparative class for Central America and the countries Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, are now available in Classification Web. Finally, one of my favorite parts of Janis’ reports lists the new and revised subject headings for inclusion in LCSH. This year we have Alcohol trafficking, Gene editing, Centaur objects, Fried chicken, and Generation Z.

These were some of the many subject-related highlights from ALA Annual 2018. I look forward to seeing you in Kuala Lumpur!

Best wishes,
Caroline Saccucci
Library of Congress

 

 

 

Call for papers – IFLA Satellite meeting

The Classification & Indexing Section will be hosting a satellite preconference 11-12 August 2016.

Join colleagues from around the world in the exchange of new ideas for providing subject access. This one and one-half day Satellite Conference will explore new services, new roles, and new partners that support subject searching. Investigate implementations, use, and reuse of traditional methods, such as classification, controlled vocabularies, and mapping; newer methods; and the connections between them. Discuss how we can take advantage of new opportunities and how we can meet the challenges.

Some examples of possible topics:

  • Traditional and new methods of providing subject access: connections, competition, or co-existence?
  • Semantic Web technologies and tools for subject access.
  • Use of library subject metadata by other communities.
  • Cooperation of libraries with other partners in creation and reuse of subject metadata and knowledge organisation systems (KOS) to support discovery. Possible examples include museums, archives, publishers, and providers of index-based discovery services.
  • User needs and subject access behaviour.
  • Users as creators of subject metadata through, for example, crowdsourcing, folksonomies, social tagging, etc.

The deadline for proposals is 15 February 2016. More information is available at the WLIC 2016 website

Call for papers – WLIC 2016 Open Session

The theme for the Classification & Indexing Section’s Open Session at WLIC 2016 is:

“Reclaiming subject access to indigenous knowledge”

The Classification & Indexing Section will be hosting an open session during the 2016 conference in Columbus, Ohio. We are seeking papers that highlight innovative and effective ways of applying subject access to indigenous knowledge. The challenges involved affect not only libraries, but also archives, museums and other cultural institutions.

Topics may include (but are not limited to):

  • Specialized metadata systems and bibliographic data
  • Ontologies and schemas
  • Obstacles to reliable subject access
  • Socio-political considerations in subject access
  • Applications of linked open data and the semantic web
  • Structuring subject access to reflect indigenous cultures
  • Memory, identity and choices of vocabulary

Deadline for submitting an abstract is 12 February.

More information is available at the  WLIC 2016 website

Classification & Indexing Section Newsletter June 2013

The Classification & Indexing Newsletter June 2014 is now available from the C&I website.  Contents include information about WLIC 2014 in Lyon, the FRBR review group, the IFLA Namespaces Technical Group, news and updates from UDC, DDC and from libraries around the world