The Discipline of Organizing

by Robert J. Glushko (Editor)

A framework for the theory and practice of organizing that integrates the concepts and methods of information organization and information retrieval. Organizing is such a common activity that we often do it without thinking much about it. In our daily lives we organize physical things—books on shelves, cutlery in kitchen drawers—and digital things—Web pages, MP3 files, scientific datasets. Millions of people create and browse Web sites, blog, tag, tweet, and upload and download content of all media types without thinking “I'm organizing now” or “I'm retrieving now.” This book offers a framework for the theory and practice of organizing that integrates information organization (IO) and information retrieval (IR), bridging the disciplinary chasms between Library and Information Science and Computer Science, each of which views and teaches IO and IR as separate topics and in substantially different ways. It introduces the unifying concept of an Organizing System—an intentionally arranged collection of resources and the interactions they support —and then explains the key concepts and challenges in the design and deployment of Organizing Systems in many domains, including libraries, museums, business information systems, personal information management, and social computing. Intended for classroom use or as a professional reference, the book covers the activities common to all organizing identifying resources to be organized; organizing resources by describing and classifying them; designing resource-based interactions; and maintaining resources and organization over time. The book is extensively annotated with disciplinary-specific notes to ground it with relevant concepts and references of library science, computing, cognitive science, law, and business.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Textbooks, Reference, Library Science, Design, Professional Development

560 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2013

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

For many new LIS students, learning how to classify and organize information can be a daunting task, especially for those of us who have come from a background less involved with numbers and classifications. The Discipline of Organizing was first recommended to my class before the finished copy was published. Our professor, a very technical woman who taught classes on metadata, information organization, and information architecture, sent along a copy to us, with the suggestion that we read it for assistance in understanding the material. In hindsight, now that I’ve finally read it, I wish she had made this our required textbook instead.

Because the organizing of information, especially in an institution as huge as an academic library, can seem a little alien, the introduction of The Discipline of Organizing is very strong and easy to understand. A common feature of books I had read on information organization before was that they were either very dry or very difficult to process (often both), relying on nothing but technical vocabulary. This is where I feel that this text shines, as the author often offers easy-to-understand, real-life examples for how information is used in the real world: SKU numbers in retail environments, the differences between formats of a play; these are explanations that simplify information organization into a process that many of us can identify with, even if we have not been on the data side of the library system. This is a trend throughout the text, and a very helpful one – after all, the most effective way to teach a new subject is to make it relatable. Even better, the constant examples and explanations make the text more engaging, without sacrificing a sense of expertise.

There are 10 chapters in total. These delve into a number of topics, from metadata to relationships to descriptions, and each chapter is very thorough, ending with a list of key points that can be reviewed. Similar to the use of examples, certain tasks in information organization are broken down very effectively as well. For example, section 4.3 The Process of Describing Resources is first broken down into a basic set of steps with a short paragraph description of what that step entails. Then, each step is described further, highlighting the importance of the step and explaining how to proceed. The detail and clarity are ideal for students, who sometimes do not yet have the experience or understanding necessary to jump straight into new jargon.

The Discipline of Organizing is definitely the best book on information organization that I’ve had the pleasure of reading so far. I would recommend it to any LIS student who is struggling with an organization of information class or looking to improve their skills.

[Henrikas Kuryla · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author attempts to formulate principles of information organization based on library science, information science, informatics, computer science and business. I'd say that to have a full picture we'd need to add mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, literature, you name it...

Although the book is supposed to be based on quite numerous disciplines, the proposed model is based mainly on library and museum practices, while trying to push other domains under that model. The result is not very inspiring: the book doesn't provide clear vision of information organization.
The book presents quite a lot of different aspects from different domains, going into quite detailed explanations of them. Knowing some of discussed areas quite well I repeatedly got the impression that although wordy those explanations don't provide enough information to really understand the topic. Sometimes when very detailed information is discussed (like XML, JSON and RDF formats) the reason for providing that information is lost. This way they book ends as superficial collection of extensive information without a clear guiding idea.

At the end of the book two interesting things appear. First - it is explained the the book is a result of efforts of a team of authors. And that explains the absence of clear guiding ideas throughout the book. The second - several case studies for organizing systems were provided. If the book started with case studies from the beginning and then explained different aspects of information organization based on them, maybe result would be much better.

[Grace]

I put this on my to read list after listening to an interview with the author on the (free!) Coursera class.
https://class.coursera.org/metadata-0...

If you sign up for the class, you can view the interview (look under Week 1 videos) and read selected chapters of the book for free.

[Caolan McMahon · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

It was so, so dry. It insisted on defining everything, repeatedly, and the chapters didn't really hang together - it read like a compendium of essays from different authors.

Perhaps this book works as a reference to dip into as part of a university course, but it was hopeless attempting to read it cover-to-cover. It had very little to say and took a lot of pages to say it. Eventually gave up after a few chapters.

At least it wasn't too expensive for a textbook.

[Eavan]

I only read a few portions of this, so it’s not really fair to say I “read” it. The class I took using this text opened my eyes to the more technical side of organization for the first time, which is really what a MLIS is when you boil it down I think. I’m still wondering if technical librarianship is my calling, what with the poor pay and all, but in the meantime, it’s a great text to get your nerd on about organization 😎📚

[Lexie Lawless · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books that is very difficult to grasp after just one reading, especially if you're not used to factual texts about organizing (although according to my experience that is very true about most books on organizing and classification). Anyway: it's probably useful once I understand more about classification in practice. Just reading about it is exhausting.

[Ben Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information in this book is all very useful, but I never realised that purple prose could be applied so accurately to academic writing.

Everything in this book is so wrapped up in the most convoluted language and sentence structures that reading it is utterly exhausting.

That said, it is very thorough, sometimes to the point of being repetitive, but that's actually a good thing if you're dipping into just a single chapter for whatever reason.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Excerpts) Text in my MLIS information organization and search course. Takes an interesting high-level look at information and the natural and less-natural ways of organizing. Looks at organizing information more broadly; would be applicable in more technical fields as well.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

well i certainly learned a lot from this!

[Vidu]

Read for GLIS 607: Organization of Information

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Explains a complex topic in a straightforward and (unsurprisingly) organized way. Excellent reading for LIS students and professionals.

[LucidStyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Available online Creative Commons

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough explanation of library organizing principles and how they apply to computer science (which are becoming one in the same). The authors provide helpful graphics, and real-world examples to illustrate principles, and current issues such as linked data are discussed.

[Reed]

For class 520