Knowledge organisation - Unit I

1
Knowledge
Organization
Knowledge Organization - Unit I, DLIS, UOM

• Application of knowledge in actionWisdom
• Experience, Value & Context
applied to a messageKnowledge
• Message of value to
RecipientInformation
• Discrete, Objective,
Unprocessed factsData
2Knowledge Organization - Unit I, DLIS, UOM

Information Transfer
3
 Information is message of value to the Recipient
 Transmission of information – Communication
 Through a medium/ channel
 message not received properly
 Unclear/ ambiguous message
 Noise

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Source Content Channel Receiver
 Communication Process can be
 One to one – inter personal
 One to many
 Many to many
• Mass Media
• Scholarly Communication – Education and
Research value
• to be preserved for posterity

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 Knowledge must be organised for future
 Scholarly communication system enables the
ability to retrieve information
 Dissemination is as important as storage and
retrieval
 Proactive dissemination – reach out to the user
community
 Bibliographic control

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Knowledge Organisation
To Analyse
To Classify
To Index
Access Points – End User
Title
Author
Subject

7
Rice
Butter
Chicken
Bread
Milk
Carrots
Cakes
Fish
Meat
Cheese
Juices
Sugar
Pulses
Onion
Spices
Cabbage
Unorganised Collection!!!

Rice
Butter
Chicken
Bread
Milk
Carrots
Cakes
Fish
MeatCheese
Juices
Sugar
Pulses
Onion
Spices Cabbage
Organised is such a Relief!
8Knowledge Organization - Unit I, DLIS, UOM

Knowledge Organisation
9
 A basis for organising the library collection in a meaningful
manner
 Knowledge organisation is at two levels:
 Macro level – Subject approach (Broad)
 Micro level – Bibliographic records (Specific)
 A Bibliographic record is a structure that contains the data
elements necessary to help users identify and retrieve a
resource. – Metadata

User Requirements
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 Author Name
 Title Approach
 Subject Approach

Name & Title Approach
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 Collective / Individual
 Direct questions – Yes/ No
 Grouping / Collocation necessary
 Access points must be standardised.
 Standardisation is setting of a particular/
approved pattern to maintain unity in
rendering the names of Authors.

Knowledge Organization - Unit I, DLIS, UOM 12
Example:
 Ranganathan S.R.
 Jane Austen
Standardisation
S.R. Ranganathan see Ranganathan S.R.
Libra see also Ranganathan S.R.
(PSEUDONYMS)
Access Points

Title Approach – Work/ Record
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 Different titles for the same work, for eg.
 Ramacharitmanas
 Kambhar Ramayana
 Vyasar Virundhu
 Library Administration by
 Ranganathan S.R
 Mittal
 Neelameghan
Versions of
Ramayana
Different
Authors

Subject Approach
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 There is a gap between
 Stated / Expressed Need
 Actual Need
 Provides a navigation facility
 Display available resources on a
particular subject
 Direct users to the related subjects

Related Subjects
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 Relationship between A& B is such that B is a variety of A
 All B are A and
some A are B
 This is a Genus Species relationship
 Chain Class / Hierarchical relationship
 Subordinate classes constitute a chain – Generic Relation
B
A
B

Associated / Collateral Relation
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 A set of co-ordinate classes having the same
super link.
 This set of class is called as array of classes.
Reptiles
Snakes Crocodiles Lizards
Collateral Array

Associated relationship
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 When you think of a subject A and for some reason if
Y & X come to your mind then there is an associative
relationship.
 Synonyms (equivalence )
 Lifts – Elevators
 Colour – Color
 Birds - Aves
 Homonyms (Different meanings)
 Mercury – Planet / Metal
 Bridge – Civil Engg. / Game

Classification
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 Act of organising the Universe of Knowledge into a systematic order
 Library Classification - the systematic arrangement of books and other
materials on shelves or of catalogue and index entries in the manner
which is most useful to those who read or who seek a definite piece of
information.
 Putting together the like-entities and separating the unlike entities.
 The characteristics of entities are used as a basis for determining the
likeness and unlikeness between them.

Definitions
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 A library classification is a system of coding and
organizing library materials (books, serials,
audiovisual, computer files, maps, photographs,
manuscripts, regalia, gramophone records, tape
records, microfilm and so on) according to their
subject. It provides formal access to documents in
a library.

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 The arrangement of books on shelves or description of
them in the manner which is most helpful to those who
read - Sayers
 The emphasis is on usefulness so that the users can locate
the document without complication.
 According to Margaret Mann, classification is “the
arranging of things according to likeness and unlikeness.
It is the sorting and grouping of things, but in addition
classification of books is a knowledge classification with
adjustment made necessary by the physical forms of
books.”

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 According to S.R. Ranganathan, “it is the translation of the name
of the subject of a book into a preferred artificial language of
ordinal numbers and the individualization of the several books
dealing with the same specific subject by means of a further set
of ordinal numbers which represents some features of the book
other than their thought content”.
 The first of these ordinal numbers is called the class number of
the book. The second ordinal numbers is called its book
number. The class number and the book number together
constitute the call number of the book.

Need
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 Helpful Sequence
 Location
Self help (Retrieval)
Correct Replacement
Mechanical Arrangement

Major Schemes of Classification
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Scheme Author Country Year
Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Melville Dewey USA 1876
Expansive Classification (EC) C A Cutter USA 1893
Universal Decimal Classification
(UDC)
FID Belgium 1896
Library of Congress Classification
(LCC)
Library of Congress USA 1904
Subject Classification (SC) J D Brown UK 1906
Colon Classification (CC) SR Ranganathan India 1933
Bibliographic Classification (BC) H E Bliss USA 1935
Rider’s International Classification
(RIC)
F Rider USA 1961

Broad & Close Classification
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 Broad Classification – the work is placed in a broad
class by the use of notation that has been logically
abridged.
 Close Classification – the content of a work is
specified by notation to the fullest extent possible
 For example, a work on French cooking is classed
closely at 641.5944 (641.59 Cooking by place + 44
France from the T1),
 broadly at 641.5 (Cooking).

Entity
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 Assumed Terms – these are substantial terms, some are given
explanation and some are defined by being linked together in a
statement. Common apparatus of any thinking, certain terms
receive formal definition.
 Existent – Undefined assumed term
 Entity – Any existent, concrete or conceptual – i.e a thing or
an idea. Eg. A boy, A system of study, sweetness
 Attribute – Any property or quality or quantitative measure of
an entity. For eg. A book –
 Subject matter
 Language
 Author / Contributor
 Paper quality / Binding
 Publisher.... So on
 Aggregate – A collection of entities without any special
arrangement. Eg. A group of boys, A collection of books...

Universe
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 An aggregate under consideration in a given context
 Finite Universe – With finite number of entities
 No. of boys in a school
 Infinite Universe
 The universe of all men, past, present and future.
 Growing Universe – new entities added or emerging
in from time to time
 Subjects of study, Books in a library, poets

Group
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 Like Entities – Entities sharing a given attribute
equally in measure, intensity, extent
 Unlike Entities - Entities NOT sharing a given
attribute equally in measure, intensity, extent
 Eg. 2 boys are 5 ft high, but born in 1995 & 1996 are
LIKE with reference to their height and UNLIKE
with reference to their age.
 Characteristics – An attribute to which the likeness
and unlikeness is determined.
 Natural Characteristics
 Artificial Characteristics

Division, Ranking & Class
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 Division - process of sorting the entities of a
universe into sub-aggregates on the basis of some
preferred characteristics.
 Ranking – Arranging in a definite sequence the
groups formed by division of the entities of a
Universe so as to arrive at an assortment of them.
Each group will then get a rank.
 Class – A ranked group

Array
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 Array – Classes derived from a universe on the basis
of a single characteristic at any one step in the
progress towards its complete assortment and
arranged in a preferred sequence.
 Open array – extrapolation
 Closed array – no extrapolation

IDEAS
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 Perception -> Concept -> Apperception
 Idea - The Product of thinking, reflecting, imagining
etc got by the intellect by integrating with the aid of
logic and what is directly apprehended by the
intuition and deposited in the memory.
 Knowledge - The totality of ideas conserved by the
humans.
 Information - Idea communicated by others or
obtained by personal study and investigation.

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 Subject – An organised or systematised body of ideas
whose extension and intension are likely to fall
coherently within the field of interest and comfortably
within the intellectual competence and the field of
inevitable specialisation of a normal person.

32
 Isolate Idea – Any idea or idea complex fit to form a
component of a subject, but not by itself fit to be
deemed to be a subject.
Gold - Gold Metallurgy, Economics of gold …
Structure – Physical Structure, Political Structure…
India – Agriculture in India, Geography of India…

Common Isolates or Special Isolates
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• Poetry, Models, Report, Newspaper....Form
• Chronological or featured time (day, night...)Time
• Continents, countries, or physical (mountains, delta...)Geographical
• Indo- European, Teutonic, Arabic , Dravidian...Language
• Sun, Planets, StarsHeavenly Bodies
• Pre School, Middle, University or Handicapped, Genius...Educated
• Gold, Protein, Alkaline, ....Substances

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 Basic Subject – A Subject without any isolate idea as
a component.
 A subject as a whole.
 Mathematics  Geometry of solids
 Literature  English Literature or Dramatic Literature
 Law  Indian Law or Criminal Law

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 Complex Subject
Subjects formed by coupling two or more subjects
 Mathematics for Physcists
 Compound Subject
A subject with a basic subject and one or more
isolate ideas
 Indian Law
 Education of Adults

Schematic Representation
36
Universe of Ideas
Universe of
Subjects
Basic Subject
Universe of
Isolates
Compound
subject
Complex
subject

Modes of formation of Subjects
37
 A guide to recognising relationships among concepts
that form a subject
 Freely faceted Classification
 Predict and understand various kinds of inter-
relations between subject and their component
 5 preliminary modes

38
Dissection Lamination
Denundation
Loose
Assemblage
Super
imposition

Dissection
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 Cutting of a Universe of entities into co-ordinates
 To form an array
 When a basic subject or an isolate is split into
subdivisions - fragmentation - Fission
 Fission may be of basic subject or isolate ideas
Botany
Agriculture
Zoology

Fission can be
40
 Dichotomy
 Division into two – Binary Classification
 Decachotomy
 Division into ten subdivisions
 Polychotomy
 Division into many
Living
Organisms
Plants
Flowering
Non Flowering
Animals
Vertebrates
Invertebrates

Fission of Common Isolates
41
Asia
China
India
Europe
Greece
Italy
Africa
Egypt
Zambia

Lamination
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 By overlaying facet on facet
 Sandwiching basic subject with isolate ideas forming a
compound subject
 Compound subjects with 2, 3,4 facets are formed by
lamination of 2, 3, etc isolate ideas on a basic subject.
Eg. Agriculture of rice in Bengal.
Agriculture
RiceBengal

Denundation
43
 The progressive decrease of the extension and
increase of the intension of a Basic Subject or an
isolate idea.
 ‘The exposure of a new area of knowledge by erosion
or divestment through research or enquiry’ – Shera
 In depth

44
Asia
India
Kerala
Cochin
Denudation of the Universe of Geographical Areas

Loose Assemblage
45
 The assemblage of two or more
 Subjects (Basic or Compound)
 Isolate Ideas
 To express possible relationships (mostly mutual) to
form compound/ complex subjects.
 Phase Relations
 General
 Bias
 Comparison
 Difference &
 Influencing

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 Influence of Buddhism on Christianity.
 Relations between India and China.
 Hindi speaking Indians.
 Labour wages of women in South Asia: A
comparative study.
 Difference between flowering and non flowering
plants.

Superimposition
47
 Connecting two or more isolate ideas belonging to
the same universe of isolate ideas .
 It follows the Wall – Picture Principle.
 Gives rise to the Quasi Isolate Idea.
 In lamination, isolate ideas of different universes are
connected together .

Fusion
48
 A new basic subject of formed when two or more
basic subjects fuse together such that they loose their
individuality.
 Eg. Biology/ Geology / Astrology and Physics
 Biophysics
 Geophysics
 Astrophysics BiophysicsBiology Physics

Agglomeration
49
 The process of getting together entities without
cohesion into large groups.
 Can be of consecutive or non consecutive
constituents.
 Eg. – Natural Sciences
- Physical Sciences
- Biological Sciences

Cluster
50
 A Specialised study
 A bunch of interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary
subjects giving rise to a new subject
 Eg. Person Studies – Gandhian/ Marxism
 Area Studies - Sinology, Occidentalia ( European Studies)
 Entity Studies – Soil Science, Oceanography.

Distillation
51
 A pure discipline is evolved as a primary basic
subject from its appearance – in – action, in diverse
compound subjects going with either different basic
subjects or one and the same basic subject.
 A new basic subject is formed
 Eg. Management Science, Research Methodology,
Forestry.

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 The definitions of Basic Subjects and isolate ideas
are only provisional depending largely on examples.
 It is up to the Classificationist to postulate a schedule
of basic subjects in order to fit for fair use.
 Universe of subjects is open, turbulent and dynamic
 New subjects and new ideas keep growing and
emerging.

Further Reading
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 Ranganathan, S. R. (1989). Prolegomena to Library
Classification. Assisted by M. A. Gopinath. 3rd rep. ed.
Bangalore: Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library
Science.
 Ranganathan, S.R. (1960). Colon Classification, 6th ed.
Bangalore: Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library
Science.
 Foskett, A. C. (1996). Subject Approach to Information. 5th
ed. London: Library Association

Knowledge organisation - Unit I

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