[Sigcr-l] Invitation to Participate: SIG/CR Annual Workshop: Defining the Limits of Classification Research & Practice

[Diane Neal]

Invitation to Participate: SIG/CR Annual Workshop: Defining the Limits of
Classification Research & Practice

ASIS&T 2010′s conference theme, “Navigating Streams in an Information
Ecosystem,” refers to the increasingly wide-ranging and expansive nature of
our field, and provides SIG/CR with a valuable opportunity to investigate
the limits of current classification research and begin developing models
for expansion. This workshop will give participants a chance to reflect on
essential questions related to information classification, representation
and organization while exploring the future of the field. This is a full-day
workshop, with morning and afternoon sessions.



The morning session will include papers from theoreticians and practitioners
in the field, including:



Molly Tighe, Time Capsules Project Cataloguer, the Warhol Museum,
Pittsburgh, PA. Ms. Tighe will describe her work at the Warhol Museum, where
she is involved with a project to arrange and describe over 600 boxes of
items contained in the Andy Warhol Time Capsules.



Grant Campbell, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media
Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Professor Campbell will
present a paper "New Life for an Old Theory: Italo Calvino, the Future of
the Web, and the Theory of Integrative Levels" This presentation will use
Italo Calvino's analysis of creativity and cybernetics to suggest that the
growth of sophisticated semantic networks in the Web of the future depends
on a process that Feibleman identified years ago with his theory of
integrative levels.



Joe Tennis, Assistant Professor at the School of Information at the
University of Washington. His paper "Form, Intention, and Indexing: The
Liminal and Integrated Conceptions Work in Knowledge Organization" will
propose a dual conception of "the work" in knowledge organization.



Tim Spalding, Founder of LibraryThing. In this presentation, Mr. Spalding
will discuss the intersection of traditional and social cataloging,
specifically how LibraryThing for Libraries allows librarians to harness the
"wisdom of the crowd" in unprecedented ways. Traditional library OPACs
currently lack the mechanisms for collecting the knowledge and preferences
of library patrons. Although the traditional cataloging and classification
model - where a small group of specialists describe materials for the
general public - works well enough for the job for which it was designed,
the expectations of users have changed with the advent of web 2.0
technologies like Wikipedia, flickr, and Amazon recommendation systems.
(*Note: this is a change from the original speaker from LibraryThing)



The afternoon session will build on the ideas presented in the morning
session and will be devoted to small group and general discussion regarding
the limits of classification research.



Specific questions include:



- Where is classification research headed?

- How can we best communicate our ideas and theories to researchers,
students, and practitioners?

- What are some of the strengths of our current research methods, and what
are our weaknesses?

- Are we working under any unexplored assumptions or biases?

- What are the goals of classification research?



Attendees will be asked to break into small groups in the afternoon to
discuss these questions, then return for general discussion towards the end
of the workshop.



Important Information:



EARLY REGISTRATION ENDS: September 17, 2010 (register and make hotel
reservations by this date)

( http://www.asis.org/asist2010/index.html )



For more information:

http://www.asis.org/asist2010/workshop-SIGCR.html



We hope to see you there!



On behalf of the workshop’s organizing committee,

Diane Neal, SIG CR Chair



Diane M. Neal, PhD
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Information and Media Studies
The University of Western Ontario
North Campus Building, Room 240
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7
519-661-2111 ext. 81034
 <mailto:dneal2 at uwo.ca> dneal2 at uwo.ca
 <http://www.fims.uwo.ca> www.fims.uwo.ca