Czech terminology for knowledge organization 40 years after : contribution to the terminological debate
Abstract
The study responds to the new paradigms of knowledge organization in the 21st century, trying to assess whether the current Czech terminology is still corresponding to it. We analyze and review Czech equivalents to the terms: knowledge organization, subject access, classification, subject headings, and indexing language (subject, systematic).
The respective terms were introduced to the Czech terminology primarily due to Blahoslav Kovář during the 1970s. Early in 2000s they have been incorporated into the Czech terminology database of library and information science (TDKIV).
Our analysis is based on the study of the theoretical literature focused at conceptual and terminological principles of the field. The methodology is based on modeling; we provide a comparison of Kovář's process model with our own proposal of an updated model of knowledge organization, adapted to the changed paradigm.
Kovář's model sees knowledge organization as a sub-process of input and output processing phase within the framework of linear communication in the information system. The proposed updated model presents an extended concept of knowledge organization as a process carried on during several stages of the information lifecycle, in the information system and beyond, within the context of non-linear network environment.