SIS Seminar Series: "The Epistemological Dimension of Knowledge Organization." Richard Smiraglia
Join us at the McGill School of Information Studies (SIS) for a talk on epistemology and knowledge organization with guest speaker Richard Smiraglia.
"The domain of knowledge organization is a discourse community in which rigorous, self-conscious inquiry takes place concerning that which is known, and its various orderings or sequences, both those that are natural or heuristic, and those that are imposed. The products of the domain, then, are ordered segments of that which is known, and the rules either for discovering their natural orders, or the rules for imposing a useful sequence. All applied knowledge organization is a form of discourse, in which the structures and rules are objects of communication, and which takes place in a cultural milieu or among actors in various cultural milieus. Thus a very important component of the science of knowledge organization must be epistemology. A dimension is an expression of the extent of a space. Epistemology is one dimension of the domain of knowledge organization. This domain demonstrates coherence across time and across geopolitical boundaries, particularly as it concerns its scientific and humanistic theoretical foundations. Differences that emerge in intension reflect shifting cultural approaches across regions and across time, and the domain’s move from emphasis on universal classifications to interoperability."
Speaker bio
Richard P. Smiraglia is an expert on knowledge organization and currently Visiting Professor and member of the Information Organization Research Group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the School of Information Studies (SOIS). Dr. Smiraglia has previously taught at Long Island University, Columbia University, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Knowledge Organization. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago, Masters of Divinity from the General Theological Seminary of Episcopal Church, and a MLS from Indiana University.
Everyone welcome
