Knowledge Organization System

A Knowledge Organization System is an information system that structures and organizes knowledge resources through controlled terminology and defined relationships.

• AKA: KOS, Knowledge Organization Framework, Semantic Organization System.
• Context:
  • It can establish Knowledge Structure through semantic relationships.
  • It can maintain Term Control through vocabulary standardization.
  • It can support Information Retrieval through controlled terminology.
  • It can enable Knowledge Discovery through conceptual relationships.
  • It can facilitate Knowledge Integration through semantic mappings.
  • ...
  • It can often provide Knowledge Navigation through hierarchical structures.
  • It can often implement Search Enhancement through term disambiguation.
  • It can often support Content Organization through metadata schemas.
  • It can often enable Data Integration through semantic interoperability.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Simple Authority List to being a Complex Ontology, depending on its semantic expressiveness.
  • It can range from being a Domain-Specific Vocabulary to being a Universal Knowledge Schema, depending on its scope coverage.
  • It can range from being a Flat Term List to being a Deep Semantic Network, depending on its relationship complexity.
  • ...
  • It can integrate with digital librarys for resource organization.
  • It can support search engines for information retrieval.
  • It can connect to metadata repositorys for resource description.
  • It can interface with content management systems for knowledge organization.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Controlled Vocabulary Systems, such as:
    • Subject Heading Lists, such as:
      • Library of Congress Subject Headings for library resource classification.
      • Medical Subject Headings for biomedical literature organization.
    • Thesaurus Systems, such as:
      • Art and Architecture Thesaurus for cultural heritage documentation.
      • UNESCO Thesaurus for educational resource organization.
  • Classification Systems, such as:
    • Universal Classifications, such as:
      • Dewey Decimal Classification for library organization.
      • Universal Decimal Classification for knowledge classification.
    • Domain Classifications, such as:
      • International Patent Classification for patent organization.
      • Mathematics Subject Classification for mathematical literature organization.
  • Semantic Systems, such as:
    • Ontology Systems, such as:
      • Gene Ontology for biological knowledge organization.
      • SNOMED CT for clinical terminology organization.
    • Topic Map Systems, such as:
      • XTM (XML Topic Maps) for knowledge representation.
      • PSI (Published Subject Indicators) for subject identification.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Full-Text Search Systems, which lack controlled vocabulary.
  • Natural Language Systems, which lack term standardization.
  • File Organization Systems, which focus on storage management rather than semantic organization.
  • Database Management Systems, which emphasize data storage over knowledge representation.
• See: Knowledge Management System, Information Organization System, Semantic Network, Classification System, Metadata Schema, Information Architecture, Knowledge Base, Semantic Web.

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References

2014

• (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Organization_Systems Retrieved:2014-2-18.
  • Knowledge Organization Systems (or KOS) is a generic term used in Knowledge organization about authority lists, classification systems, thesauri, topic maps, ontologies etc.

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