This is an introductory course to key concepts, systems, and tools to organize, provide access to, and share information resources. The course covers basic principles and applications of descriptive cataloging, classification, and indexing for physical and electronic resources. Also covered are metadata, thesauri, and emerging knowledge organization systems including ontologies and folksonomies. The course provides the foundation for further studies in library, archives, and museum cataloging; reference; information retrieval; database management; and information architecture.

Assignments

• Participation (5%)
• Metadata presentation (15%)
• Short exercises (30%)
• Catalog analysis (25%)
• Categorization design (25%)

Topics

Foundations of Information Organization
1. Course Introduction
2. History of Information Organization
3. Theoretical Frameworks for Information Organization

Cataloging and Metadata
4. Principles of Cataloging
5. Metadata I: Models
6. Metadata II: Description
7. Metadata III: Control

Categorization
8. Categorization Schemes
9. Subject Classification and Vocabulary Control
10. Social Organization/Folksononomies
11. Ontologies
12. Abstracting and Indexing

Related Developments
13. Information Architecture
14. Knowledge Organization and Information Visualization