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The Evolution of Thesauri and the History of Knowledge Organization: Between the Sword of Mapping Knowledge and the Wall of Keeping It Simple

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The Evolution of Thesauri and the History of Knowledge Organization: Between the Sword of Mapping Knowledge and the Wall of Keeping It Simple 1 THE EVOLUTION OF THESAURI AND THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION: BETWEEN THE SWORD OF MAPPING KNOWLEDGE AND THE WALL OF KEEPING IT SIMPLE Francisco-Javier García-Marco Francisco-Javier García-Marco, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Ciencias de la Documentación e Historia de la Ciencia, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, C/ Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza, [email protected] Abstract which ensures proper transparency and control by the user Thesauri are considered as an optimum between maximum who wants to take the effort to supervise and analyse its ontological modelling (best knowledge mapping) and mini- search processes. It is proposed that better devices for ensur- mal alphabetic ordering (less expensive access). From this ing semantic sorting are provided when necessary, and that a point of view a swift history of its evolution is provided. The distributed hub for thesauri interconnection is provided, per- recent evolutions in Internet searching are also analysed from haps using the existent big open Internet semantic facilities, this perspective. In this context, there is an immediate role for as Wikipedia. thesauri to ensure interoperability and feed up the new Inter- Keywords: Thesauri; Evolution; Interoperability; User expe- net semantic engines; and in the long term as a simple seman- rience; Cost-effectiveness; Semantic web tic user interface for resource discovery and navigation, to classification, which is natural, alphabetical ordering 1. Introduction is a socio-technology, which appeared very late in the During the last century and a half, many knowledge evolution of humanity, and which is valid for the ma- organization systems (KOS) —both models and exem- nipulation of the keys when you know them, but cannot plars— have been proposed and developed, but their be used to map knowledge, but only to ensure a quicker success has been diverse, with some universal and spe- access to it under certain conditions. After the inven- cialized classifications and the thesaurus model being tion of the alphabet, newer and newer technologies the main survivors. The context, history and current have appeared that are based on alphabetical order (al- digital challenges of thesauri are well-known (Foskett, phabetical indexing), but these very efficient technolo- 1982; Dahlberg, 1995; Gilchrist, 2003, Dextre Clarke, gies can be considered only as a secondary approach to 2008; Dextre Clarke & Zeng, 2012; Roe & Thomas, that of classification, one of the pillars on which human 2004) together with the most recent achievements, for cognition is grounded. example the new ISO standard (Dextre Clarke & Zeng, But classification is hard work that increases when the 2012), so this paper does not intend to review this evo- knowledge that must be managed increases, so alterna- lution, but tries to re-examine some principles behind tives are needed when this work becomes overwhelm- the wider historical frame of knowledge organization, ing. So, the history of knowledge organization can be so that their strengths can be better highlighted. The considered as a fluctuation between the (upper) ideal departure point of such an argument is the considera- horizon of a complete ontology of knowledge and the tion of classification as the primary device that cogni- (bottom) very practical and cost-efficient approaches tive systems use to overcome the information overload, based on accessing the alphabetically codified and or- and to represent it in a way that is reusable, retrievable dered knowledge keys, disregarding the desire to (García-Marco & Esteban-Navarro, 1993). In contrast properly map knowledge as something unrealistic and García-Marco, Francisco-Javier. The evolution of thesauri and the history of knowledge organization: Between the sword of mapping knowledge and the wall of keeping it simple. // Brazilian Journal of Information Studies: Research Trends. 10:1 (2016) 1-11. ISSN 1981-1640. 2 even naïve. A middle point between both approaches impact on their external or internal environment. These could provide some stabilization to the knowledge or- links between real-world configurations, internal repre- ganization trends, and this middle point could be pre- sentations and actions-in-the-world are governed by the cisely the thesaurus. laws of perception and memory. In particular. These links are organized in our memory in chains that are In this way of reasoning, we think that the strengths of marked by keys, so that they can be accessed, distin- thesauri, that have allowed them—at least up to now— guishing some from the others. But as human percep- to survive and thrive in the last decades, could very tion, human information processing and retrieval are well be valid in the new Internet dominated global in- very limited by factors as limitations of the processing formation space. These strengths can be summarized as space, available energy or computational complexity, the balancing of their representational power, on the so our systems are equipped to naturally discard one hand, and their simplicity on the other. To these, knowledge that is not used, keeping the whole amount which are classical, we should add a new one of special of operational knowledge to a certain and manageable significance in the age of the pervasive Internet search size. engines, which had been applied by almost all KOS up to the present: that is, transparency to both designers On the other hand, having as much knowledge availa- and cataloguers and, even more important in these ble as possible gives a competitive advantage, because times of apprehensions regarding digital privacy, users. behaviour can be modulated in a more precise way. So humans have traditionally tried ways to expand their To stress this point, we approach to the history of the- ability to remember and recall, applying their “craft- sauri as a mirror of the general evolution of knowledge ing” abilities to this problem. Cognitive and education- organization, and as a function of its instrumental role al psychologists commonly classify them in the realm for human memory, which needs keys and organization of metacognitive abilities. For this discussion, it is im- to preserve knowledge and access to it. Secondly, it portant to note that, although they are biologically studies the development of thesauri as an answer to the grounded, they are human inventions, assumed and problems posed by uniterms and descriptors—the suc- institutionalized inside a culture. cessively corrected post-coordinate indexing systems that were proposed as an alternative to enumerative The initial and most simple strategies must have been classifications in a context of information explosion—; to select memory keys, able to be expanded in a its merger with the alternative approach of synthetic “chunking” of others classified concepts (Miller, classifications; and its great impact on other KOS. Fi- 1956). Humans learned very soon to map these mental nally, we try to contextualize and explore their role in keys against salient physical aspects of their environ- the Internet 'world', the new knowledge infrastructure. ment (signals); and finally started to produce their own physical keys (symbols) and to manipulate their sym- Thus, this approach is not empirical, but rationalist in bolic environments to create increasingly complex and the sense that it uses deductive reasoning to the field of expressive sets of signals or “discourses”. They learned KO by applying more general well-grounded theories to link these institutionalized memories with the differ- from other fields that deal with the basic phenomena ent astronomical events that formed repetitive cycles. that KO studies, e. g., information, knowledge, lan- Probably this increasingly complex relation of humans guage, etc. In particular we will try to root thesauri in with their environment evolved together with the mar- the long-term view provided by the evolutionary histo- vellous technology of language. (These processes have ry of nature and culture. The former (the rationalism- only been approached in the past by logic, in a specula- based perspective) is consistent with the majority of tive way, but they are now the object of empirical study research trends in the field, as shown by Hiørland by disciplines like Cognitive Archaeology (Wynn, (2014), and, with him, we consider that it has been, and 2002).) Language became itself a new field of experi- can keep being, a fruitful approach for producing sound mentation and crafting. Rhythms, recitation and narra- working theories in our field; though, at the same time, tion evolved as structures to support shared knowledge we explicitly recognize the need for increased empiri- representation and recall. Representational techniques cal research. were slowly but impressively improved, as the history of fine arts shows; up to a point when the graphic 2. The primitive nature of classification world and language come together with the invention Though knowledge organization as a discipline has a of ideographic script. specific sense related to bibliographical classification With the invention of writing, the process accelerated. and other alternative approaches, knowledge organiza- Humans dealt not only with documents as a storage tion is, more broadly, a natural process (García-Marco, device, but also as a flexible working memory expan- 2011; García-Marco & Esteban, 1993). Organisms sion, allowing them to improve notation and reasoning store representations of external and internal processes, techniques. Logic and mathematics, libraries, infor- so that they can operate on them, and obtain a result mation retrieval systems, the World Wide Web or In- that can trigger a response that may have a relevant ternet search engines are subsequent highly relevant García-Marco, Francisco-Javier. The evolution of thesauri and the history of knowledge organization: Between the sword of mapping knowledge and the wall of keeping it simple. // Brazilian Journal of Information Studies: Research Trends. 10:1 (2016) 1-11. ISSN 1981-1640. 3 examples of these memory-enhancing techniques, Primarily, knowledgeable agents – such as human be- roughly ordered in the line of historical evolution. ings - are interested in meanings.
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