A Dictionary of Knowledge Organization

Citation

Slavic, A. (2005), "A Dictionary of Knowledge Organization", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 61 No. 2, pp. 312-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410510585250

This book is a compendium of terminology from the wider area of knowledge organization (KO), information retrieval and librarianship. It is a dictionary containing a selection of terms and expressions that one is likely to encounter while studying and teaching subject indexing and information retrieval. There are around 600 entries described, cross‐referenced and arranged alphabetically (word by word). Entries encompassing terms, proper names, expressions and phrases contain the author's interpretation and comments with examples presented in free text (i.e. in a non‐structured fashion with emphasis on the author's own viewpoint). The length of a description varies from one sentence to several pages. A few entries contain bibliographic references and these can be checked in the brief bibliography of textbooks and articles provided in the Introduction.

This dictionary is an interesting, if somewhat unusual, compilation of very general entries such as absolute, deduction, digit, understanding, universe, title, word, time (not all of which are described as KO specific) and very KO system specific entries such as docuterm, alien region and APUPA. Besides concepts, expressions and phrases, including those that are idiosyncratic and less well‐known (e.g. first‐of‐two rule, starvation principle, subject index illusion, subject‐to‐name reference), the dictionary also lists bibliographic standards, KO tools, and organizations. In the Introduction, the author admits that the choice of terms may appear “eclectic”, and explains his approach as an attempt to “investigate relationships between various concepts and their definition” presented in a way “that may evoke thoughts”.

Although detailed and ambitious in scope, the selection of entries sometimes lacks balance. For instance, there is an entry for Bradford's but not for Zipf's or Lotka's laws. There are entries for SGML and RDF, but no mention of XML or HTML or, for that matter, metadata. The significant number of general classification systems is included, but examples for special classifications, subject‐heading systems and thesauri are missing. Many terms specific to Colon Classification and Dewey Decimal Classification are included in great detail. Readers may have found it more useful, however, if a few entries for concepts common to the majority of classification systems such as “decimal notation”, “auxiliaries”, “caption”, and “distributed relatives” were included. It is certain that the number of very specific terms and the book's ambitious coverage makes the absence of any related terms more obvious.

The distribution of concept definition into a series of more specific entries seems to be governed by the desire to provide a shortcut and brief reminder while avoiding a complex explanation. Hence for “notation” there are six cross referenced entries: notation, structured notation, notational plane, brevity of notation, mnemonics in notation and sector notation. This bottom‐up approach, to use the author's own explanation, does not always work well and when related entries are put together, sometimes they do not sum up or provide full information.

At first glance, in particular with respect to the book's size and scope, the book reminds one of the old Buchanan's A Glossary of Indexing Terms (Clive Bingley, London, 1976) which is also a dictionary driven and inspired by teaching experience. Any resemblance to this highly selective and conservatively drafted teaching aid is, however, only superficial. Satija's dictionary looks and feels as if it is only the first stage of a much larger project and the impression one gets reading the introduction is that the author wishes to continue this much needed work. The author chooses to avoid objective, neutral and more complex definitions in order to make space for informal, simpler, but consequently less accurate interpretations. This is something awaiting to be revisited in any future work as this appears to be the dictionary's weakest point. Buchanan's glossary, for instance, avoided this problem by providing entries with the following structure:

• •

  basic definition;

• •

  fuller explanation; and

• •

  reference to related terms.

From the point of view of layout and physical presentation the mixed use of the same bold typeface for different purposes (for the main entry, for emphasis in the text, and for subtitles within longer entries) makes the book hard to follow. It is also regrettable that final editing failed to stop typographical mistakes and inconsistencies in spelling from appearing in this book.

Published by the author's university in a limited and affordable edition this book may be of interest to the those concerned with terminology in the KO field and those working on similar projects. By putting together established and well‐researched concepts with pragmatic and idiosyncratic expressions and phrases, the author illustrates the lack of shared and established terminology. The boundaries of knowledge organization as drafted by this book bring together terminology from artificial intelligence, knowledge management, information retrieval, information science, internet technology, bibliographic control and library services. Although not suitable for students, KO researchers and teachers may find this dictionary inspiring and thought‐provoking.