Organization of Knowledge

Jack Andersen is an associate professor, PhD, at the Royal School of Library and Information Science, University Copenhagen. Andersen’s research interests are centred on digital media, classification, and genre theory. Andersen has published several articles dealing with how to understand knowledge organization, scholarly literature, and information literacy from social theoretical, epistemological, and genre theoretical approaches. His recent edited volume, Genre Theory in Information Studies, explores different dimensions of genre in analyses of information. He is on the advisory board for the international research network, Genre Across Borders. In 2009-2013 Andersen served as vice-director and chair of department at the Royal School of Library and Information Science. He teaches courses on the theory of science, academic writing, media theory, and digital culture. Laura Skouvig is associate professor in Information Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her primary research interest is the field of information history focusing on the history of the information age and information society. She has published articles on information networks, surveillance and communication of information primarily in the period of late 18th and early 19th century. Theoretically she works with inspiration from Michel Foucault and rhetorical genre theory. She’s on the editorial boards of two international journals: library and information history and information and culture. She teaches courses on the theory of science and knowledge culture.

• The organization of knowledge: caught between global structures andlocal meaningGenre, Organized Knowledge, and Communicative Action in Digital CultureInformation cultures: shapes and shapings of informationThe (De-)Universalization of the United States: Inscribing Māori Historyin the Library of Congress ClassificationReader-interest classifications: local classifications or globalindustry interest?Knowledge representation of photographic documents: a case study at theFederal University of Pernambuco (Brazil)Slanted knowledge organization as a new ethical perspective

American, Danish, and Brazilian contributors in library and information science are represented in these papers from an August 2015 conference held in Copenhagen. They chart the growth of the field of knowledge organization (KO) and highlight the tension between global information structures and meanings and ethics in localized contexts. The first two chapters offer a history of information cultures and a discussion of connections between genre, organized knowledge, and digital culture. Later subjects examined include reader-interest classifications, knowledge representation of photographic documents, and inscribing Maori history in the Library of Congress classification.