CFP: International UDC Seminar 2013, The Hague, 24-25 October

Classification & Visualization: Interfaces to Knowledge

VENUE: The Hague, National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek)
DATE: 24-25 October 2013
WEBSITE: http://seminar.udcc.org/2013/
CONTACT: seminar2013@udcc.org

Bibliographic or documentary classifications are the oldest 'interfaces' to the world of information and knowledge. They provide a meaningful display of concepts and their relationships in a visual and an understandable way, enabling linear ordering of complex hierarchical structures.

The objective of this conference is to explore cutting edge advances and techniques in the visualization of knowledge across various fields of application and their potential impacts on thinking about developments in the more main stream bibliographic and documentary classifications. 

We invite overviews, illustrations and analysis of approaches to and models of the visualization of knowledge that can help advance the application of documentary and bibliographic classification in information and knowledge discovery. 

We welcome high quality, innovative research contributions from various fields of application including: 

• visualization of knowledge orders (e.g. scientific taxonomies, Wikipedia) 
• visualization of collection content, large datasets
• visualization of knowledge classifications for the purpose of managing the classifications and working with them 
• visualization of knowledge to support interactive searching, users browsing behaviour (IR) and classification as an aid to information navigation

Specific topics may include:

1. Issues and challenges in visualization of conceptual structures and knowledge in general (e.g. development of knowledge over time, shift in knowledge structures (dynamic knowledge), interactions between knowledge structures, socio-cultural issues, technical challenges (incl. animation, simulation)
2. Knowledge visualization models and metaphors: theory, methods, overviews, analysis 
3. Visualization of classification in: information searching and browsing (e.g. search expansion, result display); visualization of knowledge in relation to user information needs
4. Presentation and visualization related to specific types of knowledge classification structure (e.g. faceted and enumerative hierarchies, polyhierarchical and/or aspect classifications etc.) 
5. Classification as an aid in presenting and navigating large datasets, or providing an overview of collection content for resource discovery or management purposes 
6. Visualization as an aid to cross-collection, cross-language, cross-vocabulary knowledge browsing 
7. Relationships between classification data formats and classification visualization 

We will accept two kinds of contributions: conference papers and posters. Authors should submit a paper proposal in the form of an extended abstract (1000-1200 words including references for papers and 500-600 words for posters). The submission form is provided on the conference website. 

Conference proceedings will be published by Ergon Verlag and will be distributed at the conference. 

IMPORTANT DATES:

15 Jan 2013 Paper proposal submission deadline
15 Feb 2013 Notification of acceptance 
15 Apr 2013 Paper submission 

ORGANIZER: Classification & Visualization is the fourth biennial conference in a series of International UDC Seminars organized by the UDC Consortium (UDCC) and hosted by Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The National Library of Netherlands). UDCC is a not-for-profit organization, based in The Hague, established to maintain and distribute the Universal Decimal Classification and to support its use and development. UDC is one of the most widely used knowledge organization systems in the bibliographic domain.

FID & UDC Archive news

On 2 October work started on the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) and UDC archive. The archive is located in the basement of the  National Library of Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek).

About the archive

First FID archive folders

Following the creation of the UDC Consortium in 1992, and the dissolution of the FID in 2000, records from the organization were packed into around 150 large cardboard boxes waiting for a permanent place.

The collection consists of:

• around 250 archive folders from the FID with the organization's documentation and publications since its foundation in 1895 (then known as the International Institute of Bliography) 
• the archive of the UDC
• the records of the FID Central Classification Committee
• UDC revision records since 1920s (around 60 metres of shelf space) 
• UDC editions in world languages since 1905 (around 30 metres of shelf space)

Once the entire collection is categorised we will start with a more detailed analysis of the material, its classification and processing. Cataloguing, classification and digitizing the collection will start in 2013, once we have a full overview of the size and content of the archive. There is no doubt that the part of the archive dealing with FID and its international work on documentation and bibliography will be valuable to many researchers in this field. A carefully maintained record of the UDC development, the early correspondence and discussion of the FID/CCC will certainly be a valuable source for researchers in the field of classification history. 

UDC as linked data

The Multilingual UDC Summary has been available as SKOS (XML/RDF) since November 2011. UDC Summary has over 2,500 UDC subdivisions including common auxiliaries (language, place, form, materials, properties etc.). UDC records in this selection contain notes, examples, references and are available in 48 languages. 

In addition to the static export download, the UDC SKOS export is also available for browsing via an html interface which displays each UDC class as a single page with an option for language selection. Both the linked data browsing interface and a single download are available from the UDC linked data webpage. The mapping between UDC and SKOS classes is also available from the same page.

The complete UDC are planned to be made available for machine-to-machine access on the web following the 2012 UDC update. This is planned to include not only 70,000 valid UDC numbers but also 11,000 cancelled classes - which will enable linking and redirecting of library catalogues containing deprecated notations. 

The UDC Summary is now being updated and expanded with UDC MRF 2011 data to include more records in the place auxiliaries and biology areas.