Knowledge Organization Systems & Their Applications

This training session introduces Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) and their applications especially in the Library and Information Science (LIS) field. It talks about various KOS systems including term lists, subject headings, categorization schemas, classification schemas, taxonomies, thesauri, semantic networks and ontologies. It gives many KOS examples especially those pertain to LIS such as BIBFRAME. It also discusses the process and different methods of creating categories, tag libraries and taxonomies. It was delivered to librarians and staff members in Technical Services at the University Central Florida Libraries and aimed to help catalogers better understand knowledge organization related concepts and systems in and beyond the library field

Ontology Services for Knowledge Organization Systems

Ontologies and other knowledge organization systems, such as controlled vocabularies, can be used to enhance the findability of information. By describing the contents of documents using a shared, harmonized terminology, information systems can provide efficient search and browsing functionalities for the contents. Explicit descriptive metadata aims to solve some of the prevailing issues in full text search in many search engines, including the processing of synonyms and homonyms. The use of ontologies as domain models enables the machine-processability of contents, semantic reasoning, information integration, and other intelligent ways of processing the data. The utilization of knowledge organization systems in content indexing and information retrieval can be facilitated by providing automated tools for their efficient use. This thesis studies and presents novel methods and systems for publishing and using knowledge organization systems as ontology services. The research is conducted by designing and evaluating prototype systems that support the use of ontologies in real-life use cases. The research follows the principles of the design science and action research methodologies. The presented ONKI system provides user interface components and application programming interfaces that can be integrated into external applications to enable ontology-based workflows. The features of the system are based on analyzing the needs of the main user groups of ontologies. The common functionalities identified in ontology-based workflows include concept search, browsing, and selection. The thesis presents the Linked Open Ontology cloud approach for managing and publishing a set of interlinked ontologies in an ontology service. The system enables the users to use multiple ontologies as a single, interoperable, cross-domain representation instead of individual ontologies. For facilitating the simultaneous use of ontologies published in different ontology repositories, the Normalized Ontology Repository approach is presented. As a use case of managing and publishing a semantically rich knowledge organization system as an ontology, the thesis presents the Taxon Meta-Ontology model for biological nomenclatures and classifications. The model supports the representation of changes and differing opinions of taxonomic concepts. The ONKI system and the ontologies developed using the methods presented in this thesis have been provided as a living lab service http://onki.fi, which has been run since 2008. The service provides tools and support for the users of ontologies, including content indexers, information searchers, ontology developers, and application developers.Ontologioita ja muita tietämyksen järjestämisen menetelmiä, kuten kontrolloituja sanastoja, voidaan käyttää tiedon löytämisen parantamiseksi. Kun dokumenttien sisällöt kuvaillaan käyttämällä jaettua, yhtenäistettyä terminologiaa, tietojärjestelmät voivat tarjota tehokkaita haku- ja selaustoiminnallisuuksia sisältöihin. Eksplisiittisesti esitetty, kuvaileva metatieto pyrkii ratkaisemaan monien hakukoneiden käyttämän kokotekstihaun ongelmia, kuten synonyymien ja homonyymien huomioimisen. Ontologioiden käyttäminen käsitemalleina mahdollistaa sisältöjen koneellisen käsittelyn, semanttisen päättelyn, tiedon integroinnin ja muita älykkäitä menetelmiä. Tietämyksen järjestämisen menetelmien hyödyntämistä sisältöjen indeksoinnissa ja haussa voidaan helpottaa tarjoamalla käyttäjille automatisoituja työkaluja niiden tehokkaaseen käyttämiseen. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan ja esitetään uudenlaisia menetelmiä ja järjestelmiä tietämyksen järjestämisen menetelmien julkaisemiseksi ontologiapalveluina. Tutkimus on toteutettu suunnittelemalla ja arvioimalla prototyyppijärjestelmiä, jotka edistävät ontologioiden käyttämistä todellisissa käyttötapauksissa. Tutkimus nojautuu suunnittelutieteen ja toimintatutkimuksen metodologioiden periaatteisiin. Työssä esitetty ONKI-järjestelmä tarjoaa käyttöliittymäkomponentteja ja ohjelmallisia rajapintoja, jotka voidaan integroida ulkoisiin sovelluksiin ontologiaperustaisten työnkulkujen mahdollistamiseksi. Järjestelmän ominaisuudet on toteutettu perustuen ontologioiden keskeisten käyttäjäryhmien tarpeiden selvittämiseen. Ontologiaperustaisista työnkuluista tunnistettuja yleisiä toiminnallisuuksia ovat käsitteen haku, selailu ja valinta. Tässä työssä esitetään linkitetyn avoimen ontologiapilven menetelmä toisiinsa linkitettyjen ontologioiden ylläpitämiseen ja julkaisemiseen ontologiapalvelussa. Järjestelmän avulla käyttäjät voivat käyttää useita ontologioita yhtenä, yhteentoimivana, alat yhdistävänä kokonaisuutena erillisten ontologioiden sijaan. Eri ontologiapalveluissa julkaistujen ontologioiden samanaikaisen käytön helpottamiseksi esitetään normalisoidun ontologiapalvelun menetelmä. Käyttötapauksena semanttisesti rikkaan tietämyksen järjestämisen menetelmän ylläpitämisestä ja julkaisemisesta työssä esitetään biologisten nimistöjen ja luokitusten taksonominen ontologiamalli. Malli mahdollistaa taksonomisten käsitteiden muutosten ja toisistaan poikkeavien näkemysten esittämisen. ONKI-järjestelmä ja työssä esitetyillä menetelmillä kehitetyt ontologiat ovat olleet käytettävissä living lab -palvelussa http://onki.fi, joka on ollut toiminnassa vuodesta 2008 lähtien. Palvelu tarjoaa työkaluja ja tukea ontologioiden käyttäjille, kuten tiedon indeksoijille, hakijoille, ontologioiden kehittäjille ja sovelluskehittäjille

Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) in the Semantic Web: A Multi-Dimensional Review

Since the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) specification and its SKOS eXtension for Labels (SKOS-XL) became formal W3C recommendations in 2009 a significant number of conventional knowledge organization systems (KOS) (including thesauri, classification schemes, name authorities, and lists of codes and terms, produced before the arrival of the ontology-wave) have made their journeys to join the Semantic Web mainstream. This paper uses "LOD KOS" as an umbrella term to refer to all of the value vocabularies and lightweight ontologies within the Semantic Web framework. The paper provides an overview of what the LOD KOS movement has brought to various communities and users. These are not limited to the colonies of the value vocabulary constructors and providers, nor the catalogers and indexers who have a long history of applying the vocabularies to their products. The LOD dataset producers and LOD service providers, the information architects and interface designers, and researchers in sciences and humanities, are also direct beneficiaries of LOD KOS. The paper examines a set of the collected cases (experimental or in real applications) and aims to find the usages of LOD KOS in order to share the practices and ideas among communities and users. Through the viewpoints of a number of different user groups, the functions of LOD KOS are examined from multiple dimensions. This paper focuses on the LOD dataset producers, vocabulary producers, and researchers (as end-users of KOS).Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, accepted paper in International Journal on Digital Librarie

Tagging, Folksonomy & Co - Renaissance of Manual Indexing?

This paper gives an overview of current trends in manual indexing on the Web. Along with a general rise of user generated content there are more and more tagging systems that allow users to annotate digital resources with tags (keywords) and share their annotations with other users. Tagging is frequently seen in contrast to traditional knowledge organization systems or as something completely new. This paper shows that tagging should better be seen as a popular form of manual indexing on the Web. Difference between controlled and free indexing blurs with sufficient feedback mechanisms. A revised typology of tagging systems is presented that includes different user roles and knowledge organization systems with hierarchical relationships and vocabulary control. A detailed bibliography of current research in collaborative tagging is included.Comment: Preprint. 12 pages, 1 figure, 54 reference

Development of Integrative Bioinformatics Applications using Cloud Computing resources and Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS).

Use of semantic web abstractions, in particular of domain neural Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS), to manage distributed, cloud based, integrative bioinformatics infrastructure. This presentation derives from recent publication:

Almeida JS, Deus HF, Maass W. (2010) S3DB core: a framework for RDF generation and management in bioinformatics infrastructures. BMC Bioinformatics. 2010 Jul 20;11(1):387. [PMID 20646315].

These PowerPoint slides were presented at Semantic Web Applications and Tools for Life Sciences December 10th, 2010, Berlin, Germany (http://www.swat4ls.org/2010/progr.php), keynote 9-10 am

Development of Integrative Bioinformatics Applications using Cloud Computing resources and Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS).

Use of semantic web abstractions, in particular of domain neural Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS), to manage distributed, cloud based, integrative bioinformatics infrastructure. This presentation derives from recent publication:

Almeida JS, Deus HF, Maass W. (2010) S3DB core: a framework for RDF generation and management in bioinformatics infrastructures. BMC Bioinformatics. 2010 Jul 20;11(1):387. [PMID 20646315].

These PowerPoint slides were presented at Semantic Web Applications and Tools for Life Sciences December 10th, 2010, Berlin, Germany (http://www.swat4ls.org/2010/progr.php), keynote 9-10 am

Knowledge organization systems in the Information Science's approach

O artigo apresenta os sistemas de organização do conhecimento e a relação com as bases teóricas utilizadas na construção de tesauros, taxonomias, ontologias e sistemas de classificação na literatura da área de Ciência da Informação. O estudo utiliza a metodologia de revisão de literatura na área de organização e representação do conhecimento, além de pesquisa nas bases de dados, a fim de investigar a produção bibliográfica sobre o tema, entre 1998 e 2009. Identifica um caminho teórico percorrido na construção desses sistemas passando pela teoria da classificação, teoria do conceito, relacionamentos entre conceitos e princípios da Linguística e Terminologia. A partir de amostra representativa, faz-se análise nas suas características extrínsecas e intrínsecas. Conclui-se que tesauros e sistemas de classificação são mais citados na literatura, inclusive servindo de referência teórica para o desenvolvimento desses sistemas. Apesar dessa base teórica proveniente dos estudos sobre tesauros e classificações com normas e padrões reconhecidos internacionalmente, evidencia-se a necessidade da consolidação de padrões comuns para o desenvolvimento dos diferentes tipos de SOC. Aponta-se a necessidade de congregar interesses multidisciplinares pela convergência de objetivos e, com isso, gerar melhores práticas de organização e representação do conhecimento. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThis article presents the knowledge organization systems related to theories to build thesaurus, taxonomies, ontologies and classification systems in the literature field of Information Science. It uses the methodology of literature review and a research on the same field databases in order to investigate the bibliographic production about the theme, from 1998 up to July 2009. It identifies the same theoretical way to build KOS through the classification theory, concept theory, the relationship between the concepts and the foundation of Linguistics and Terminology. Extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics were analysed from the representative sample of the bibliographic production about KOS. The last chapter verifies that the thesaurus and classification systems are the most quoted in the literature about KOS, being a theoretical reference to the development of these systems based on the international standards and rules. It highlights the importance of consolidating common standards to build different types of KOS and shows the need of gathering the multidisciplinary interests linked by the same goals and also getting better practices in the knowledge organization and representation. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMENEl artículo presenta los sistemas de organización del conocimiento y la relación com os fundamentos teóricos utilizados en la construcción de tesauros, taxonomias, ontologias y sistemas de classificación en la literatura de Ciencia de la Información. El estudio utiliza la metodología de revisión de la literatura en el área de organización y representación del conocimiento, y la búsqueda de las bases de datos con el fin de investigar la producción de la literatura sobre el tema entre 1998 y 2009. Identifica un camino recorrido teórico en la construcción de estos sistemas a través de la teoría de la clasificación, la teoría del concepto, las relaciones entre los conceptos y principios de la Lingüística y Terminología. De una muestra representativa, es el análisis de sus características intrínsecas y extrínsecas. Se concluye que los sistemas de tesauros y la clasificación son los más citados, incluyendo servir como marco teórico para el desarrollo de tales sistemas. A pesar de esta base teórica de los estudios de las normas de tesauros y la clasificación y con las normas reconocidas internacionalmente, pone de relieve la necesidad de consolidación de las normas comunes para el desarrollo de diferentes tipos de SOC. Este artículo pone de relieve la necesidad de poner en común la convergencia de intereses y objetivos multidisciplinario, lo que genera las mejores prácticas en la organización y representación del conocimiento