ISKO UK BIENNIAL CONFERENCE – 13/14 July 2015, London. Registration open. Knowledge Organization – Making a difference.

Dear colleagues,

*Knowledge Organization – Making a difference. **ISKO UK BIENNIAL 
CONFERENCE – 13/14 July 2015, London *

Details at: 
http://www.iskouk.org/content/knowledge-organization-making-difference

Registration at: https://www.conftool.net/iskouk2015/

The systematic and structured organization of knowledge and information 
has far-reaching applications, best known in the search, browsing, 
navigation and exploration of collections and networks. But despite this 
capability, “what use is classification nowadays?” some people ask. “The 
era of the physical library is fading, and Google will find whatever we 
want.” This widely held view  forgets the way organized collections of 
scientific and cultural literature have underpinned study and 
development throughout the last 2-3 millennia, and neglects our current 
and future reliance on knowledge organization (KO). It ignores the 
current capabilities and upcoming potential of  KO techniques and 
networked KOSs, not just to provide sophisticated access to a world of 
existing knowledge, but also to stimulate and support new discoveries.

This conference aims to explore, justify and proclaim the continuing 
demand for KO. It will be a showcase for R & D that offers benefits for 
cultural activities and economic development, and an opportunity to 
consider the impact that KO has had, is having and will have.

*Who should attend*

This conference caters amply for practitioners alongside theoreticians, 
including consultants, researchers, teachers and students. Knowledge 
Organization is useful to systems designers as well as information 
managers, with applications in areas as diverse as web design, records 
management, digital libraries and asset management, network management, 
etc. Sharing ideas is the way to advance your own thinking – do come and 
join the discussions!

*Some highlights*

·As Keynote speakers we have*Alan Gilchrist* and *Dagobert Soergel*, 
both influential writers and speakers in our field. While Gilchrist 
reflects on the advances already achieved through KO, Soergel looks to a 
future in which KO structures enable connections, inferencing, 
understanding and exploiting information.

·*Patrick Lambe*, already a popular speaker at our past conferences, 
returns to urge a proactive role for KO professionals in designing and 
developing networked knowledge environments. He will also facilitate an 
*interactive fishbowl session* for all of us to discuss what we can do 
in the workplace to implement KO effectively and raise its profile. **

·Joining us from the USA,*Joseph Busch* will share his extensive 
consultancy experience in applying classification principles both 
in-house and on the Web.

·“Using Knowledge Organization Systems requires proper tools to manage 
them” is the declaration of *Johannes Keizer* and *Caterina Caracciolo* 
from the FAO , where the AGRIS database has evolved to become a 
KOS-based Linked Open Data web application underpinned by VocBench, a 
state of the art editor for KOS enabling automatic alignment of 
vocabularies.

There are many more speakers in the provisional programme at 
http://www.iskouk.org/content/knowledge-organization-making-difference, 
where you can also find details such as venue and registration fees. To 
make a booking you will need to go to 
https://www.conftool.net/iskouk2015/ and set up a user account. An early 
bird discount applies until 30^th April, so don’t delay in booking your 
place!

On behalf of ISKO UK, I look forward to seeing you there,
Stella Dextre Clarke
Vice-Chair, ISKO UK
www.iskouk.org

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More background*

ISKO is a not-for-profit scientific/professional association with a 
mission to promote the theory and practice of organizing knowledge and 
information. The emphasis in our UK Chapter is on building bridges 
between the research and practitioner communities, for example at our 
regular and very popular afternoon meetings. You can see past and future 
events at Our Events <http://www.iskouk.org/events>, together with 
slides and sound recordings for most presentations. The proceedings 
(including slides, papers and audio) of our previous biennial 
conferences are available there too; see for example 
http://www.iskouk.org/content/isko-uk-conference-2013-knowledge-organization-pushing-boundaries.
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Stella Dextre Clarke
Vice-Chair, ISKO UK and Vice-President, ISKO
Luke House, West Hendred, Wantage, OX12 8RR, UK
Tel: 01235-833-298
Fax: 01235-863-298
stella@lukehouse.org
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