The Discipline of Organizing

Title:

ISBN:

9780262518505

Publication:

Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2013]

Physical Description:

xx, 539 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contents:

Foundations for Organizing Systems -- Activities in Organizing Systems -- Resources in Organizing Systems -- Resource Description and Metadata -- Describing Relationships and Structures -- Categorization: Describing Resource Classes and Types -- Classification: Assigning Resources to Categories -- The Forms of Resource Descriptions -- Interactions with Resources -- A Roadmap for Organizing Systems

Subject Term:

Information organization.

Information resources management.

Metadata.

Local Subject:

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE COLLECTION

Added Author:

Glushko, Robert J.

Electronic Access:

Preview this title.

Other Format:

Electronic resource 9780262313964

Available:

Library	Call Number	Material Type	Status
Searching... State Library of Oregon	025 Disci	4-Week Loan	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A framework for the theory and practice of organizing that integrates the concepts and methods of information organization and information retrieval. Organizing is such a common activity that we often do it without thinking much about it. In our daily lives we organize physical things-books on shelves, cutlery in kitchen drawers-and digital things-Web pages, MP3 files, scientific datasets. Millions of people create and browse Web sites, blog, tag, tweet, and upload and download content of all media types without thinking "I'm organizing now" or "I'm retrieving now."
This book offers a framework for the theory and practice of organizing that integrates information organization (IO) and information retrieval (IR), bridging the disciplinary chasms between Library and Information Science and Computer Science, each of which views and teaches IO and IR as separate topics and in substantially different ways. It introduces the unifying concept of an Organizing System-an intentionally arranged collection of resources and the interactions they support -and then explains the key concepts and challenges in the design and deployment of Organizing Systems in many domains, including libraries, museums, business information systems, personal information management, and social computing.
Intended for classroom use or as a professional reference, the book covers the activities common to all organizing systems- identifying resources to be organized; organizing resources by describing and classifying them; designing resource-based interactions; and maintaining resources and organization over time. The book is extensively annotated with disciplinary-specific notes to ground it with relevant concepts and references of library science, computing, cognitive science, law, and business.

Author Notes

Robert J. Glushko is Adjunct Full Professor in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the coauthor (with Tim McGrath) of Document Engineering- Analyzing and Designing Documents for Business Informatics and Web Services (MIT Press).

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

Have you ever organized your books, CDs or DVDs, food pantry items, files on your computer, or bookmarked websites? If so, though the activity may have felt like second nature to you, what you were actually doing, according to editor Glushko (Sch. of Information, Univ. of California, Berkeley; coauthor, Document Engineering: Analyzing and Designing Documents for Business Informatics and Web Services), was creating an "Organizing System-an intentionally arranged collection of resources and the interactions they support." Here, Glushko pulls together contributions from scholars, information analysts, and technology experts to introduce the concept of an organizing system and explain the fundamental goals and challenges in the design and setup of such systems, using libraries, museums, businesses, and other organizations to illustrate how these systems are created. Entries cover such topics as selecting and organizing resources, theories of categorization, classifications (faceted and computational), and forms of resource descriptions (e.g., XML, JSON, RDF). Each chapter concludes with six types of endnotes: citation, LIS (library and information science), computing, CogSci (cognitive science), law, and business. Additional resources include a glossary and companion website. VERDICT This ambitious and well-written book provides a foundation of the theory and practice of organizing. It is highly recommended to library and information science academics who incorporate the concept of organizing or organization into their courses.-Susan E. Ketcham, Long Island Univ. Post Lib., Brookville, NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.