Organizing Knowledge: An Introduction to Managing Access to Information

Rowley, Jennifer and Hartley, Richard: Organizing Knowledge: An Introduction to Managing Access to Information, 4th ed. Farnham, Surrey, U.K. : Ashgate, 2008. xxiv, 367p. ISBN-13 :978-0-7546-4431-6 (pbk)

It is the fourth edition of a famous British book in the field of knowledge organization and practical information retrieval. First published in 1987 its previous edition (Gower, 2000, xix, 404p) was coauthored with late John Farrow who is now one of the dedicatee of the book. In full two decades of its existence it has mirrored the fast developments in the field and has set standards for teaching.

Knowledge organization, though still in flux has become quite sophisticated in concepts and operations, and has very much widened its field of applications from libraries to public record offices, archives, museums (all memory institutions), corporate databases, and content management systems. Developments in knowledge organizations are incremental in all these sectors. The work establishes the complexity of the field of knowledge organization and lucidly explains the basis of knowledge structuring and retrieval in different contexts and situations. Accordingly, the text has been restructured and indeed updated to reflect the current thinking and practices. The entire text has been divided into three parts of twelve detailed chapters to make it a comprehensive textook and a one-stop-shop to buy the basics and techniques of information management, both in electronic and print environments. Introduction provides a concise but skilled synopsis of the whole work with an overview of the contents of each chapter. Part I of three chapters, renamed as "Structuring and Describing," is an exercise to describe the nature of knowledge, types of documents and their descriptions.

Part Il (chapters 4-8), the terra firma of the book titled "Access," describes the subject and other approaches to information and documents. It describes the standard tools for organization and description of documents. Tools and standards of cataloguing and classification described are the latest. The work incorporates extensive revisions to include increasing shift towards digital and networked information. Traditional and modern methods jostle in the pages for space though knowledge organization in the print environment has its own full chapter 1 1 "Organizing Knowledge without IT". It squeezes a vast field in a limited space. As a result some concepts are only touched.

Revised to incorporate recent developments the significant additions and updatings include : ontologies and taxonomies, information behavior, digital libraries and content management, semantic web, interoperability, information security and authenticating the users. Part III (chapters 9-12) entitled "Systems" deals with various KO systems (both digital and manual) and the issues related with their management. It dwells on the management of knowledge systems, organizations and networks, management of change such as authority control, and security.

Though basically a student oriented book, it is handy in understanding the design and working of information retrieval systems. It will equally be useful to info-intermediaries, such as vendors and aggregators, and also the info-management trainers. It paints a wholesome picture on a wider canvas with sufficient details. It is a learner's text as well as a how to do it manual for the practitioners, especially for the document access in the digital environment. Each chapter has been divided into sections with apt feature headings for easy comprehension and to help remain focused on the specific theme. Amply illustrated, each chapter includes boxed figures, diagrams, real life examples, learning objectives, a chapter summary and a list of further readings. Questions for review at the end of each chapter are framed with insights and may help examiners to set meaningful questions. These features make it a learner oriented and user friendly text. But there is no consolidated bibliography at the end which would have been another useful feature. Hard work and experienced insights are hall marks of this work.

This easy to read, profusely illustrated and well argued book maintains its leadership in the field. It sets standards for teaching and curriculum design.

To pick nits, its index has been trimmed without gain. DDC22(2003) has been described as DDC-21 (p.207), IFLA (p. xxiv) has been spelled as International Federation for Library Association whereas since long it is an International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. BC-2 is described as its third edition (p. 235). Nevertheless these are minor omissions in an outstandingly authentic work.