Organization of Information in Digital Libraries:

Digital libraries are an extension, enhancement, and integration both of information retrieval systems and of multiple information institutions, libraries being only one. The scope of digital libraries’ capabilities includes not only information retrieval but also creating and using information (Borgman, 2000, p. 47). According to Borgman, digital libraries are for communities of users and that they are really extensions of the physical places where resources are selected, collected, organized, preserved, and accessed, including libraries, museums, archives, and schools (p. 47). Sun Microsystems (2002) shares the same idea as Borgman, a digital library as "the electronic extension of functions users typically perform and the resources they access in a traditional library" (p. 7).

The first digital libraries contributed to the digital library innovation because of the lack of availability of a standardized package. The University of California Berkley project is a a great example of what innovations have been made. Their project has become the building block of Encoded Archival Description (EAD). The project created specifications for encoding electronic finding aids for special collections and archives. Another project, the "Making of America II" project has evolved into the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS).

Cornell University's digitization program is another example of the digital library innovations. The digital library program is establishing a central repository for all these digitized resources with the aim of supporting the total lifecycle of those resources (Sun Microsystems, 2002, p.11).

"Infomine" is an example of a digital library created by cooperating librarians from several academic libraries, (Infomine, n.d., para. 1). Infomine is described as "a virtual library of Internet resources" with almost 170 librarians who create "expert created records," automatic and semiautomatic metadata generation of records retrieved by Web crawlers.

Organization of Information on the Internet:

The Dublin Core is an example of in the effort being made to organize the Internet. It is basically a combination of different web sites bibliographies. Librarians have been a part of the group of people working on a metadata standard called the Dublin Core. OCLC, a major library-oriented bibliographic network, established CORC (Cooperative Online Resource Center) in the late 1990s in order to provide a way for libraries to catalog online resources cooperatively and to have ready access to a database of metadata describing important Web resources (Taylor, 2004, p. 14). OCLC has incorporated CORC into its Web interface, Connexion, which also allows the development of pathfinders for certain subjects.

Computer programmers have helped with the organization of the internet, by developing software that automatically classifies and indexes electronic documents. However, the problem the popular software has is the same thing most computers have: they cannot replace the skill of humans. But, OCLC’s research project is current improving an approach to automatic classification using the Dewey Decimal Classification.

Organization of Information in Museums:

A preliminary record is the first record created after the acquisition of the artifact. If the artifact is to be kept, then an accession record is created. Groups of similar items are not given their own individual accession records, the are assigned to a single lot with one accession number. But each individual object is categorized their own numerical sequences.

In museums other than natural history museums, after the creation of accession records items are cataloged.

Provenance is also important information and is essential in determining the name of the object. According to Harvard's Provenance Research site, "provenance" is a list of the the previous owners of a work of art, tracing it from its present location and owner back to the hand of the artist (2004, para. 2). All of the other information about the object must appear with the provenance and condition in the catalog or registration record. One important difference between creating records for museum objects and text is that the objects are unknown at the time of the accessioning and registering.

Visual materials are often the most difficult to describe because the descriptions rely on the describer. When words are not available the description relies on the perception of the person creating the description. As the saying goes, "I say potato, you say potatoe." When there are no words available to describe the object, it is up to the discretion of the describer to find a word. According to Arlene Taylor (2004), "Subject analysis is also more difficult for visual materials-an image cannot tell in words what it is about" (p. 12). This brings to mind the black & white pictures used by many psychiatrists. If you have 30 different people look at the same picture, you will have 30 different opinions. Subject analysis is subject to the perception of the individual.

Organization of Information in Information Architecture:

Andrew Dillon (2002) defines information architecture as "the term used to describe the process of designing, implementing and evaluating information spaces that are humanly and socially acceptable to their intended stakeholders (p. 822). He says he purposely leaves the definition ‘open so that we cover the organizational, blueprinting, and experience aspects, and allow for IA roles to cover these aspects (Dillon, p.822). Information architects don't agree that information architecture is a new approach to the organization of informaiton.

Louis Rosenfield and Peter Morville (1998) identified the following as the job of information architecture:

• Clarifies the mission and vision for the site, balancing the needs of its sponsoring organization and the needs of its audiences.
  
• Determines what content and functionality the site will contain.
  
• Specifies how users will find information in the site by defining its organization, navigation, labeling, and searching systems
  
• Maps out how the site will accommodate change and growth over time (p. 24).
  

By 2002, the situation had evolved enough that Rosenfield and Morville expanded their explanation to say that the process of information architecture must go through the following phases: research, strategy, design, implementation, and administration (Rosenfield & Morville, p. 26). The strategy and design phases require an understanding of the theories involved in the organization of information.

Organization of Information in Archives:

The basic principles of organizations are provenance and original order. Provenance is the originator (i.e. the corporate body or individual) that created, gathered, and maintained the collection before it was sent to the archives. The term provenance is also used to show the ownership history of a particular artifact or collection of archival information. Original order is the order in which the originator of an archival collection kept or created the collection (Taylor, 2004, p. 10). Most archives maintain their collections according to provenance and the contents of the collections are kept in original order.

Archival materials can be described using accession records, catalog records or finding aids. An accession record summarizes information about the source of the collection, gives the circumstances of its acquisition, and briefly describes the physical data and contents for a collection. A finding aid gives a detailed contents note of the historical and organizational context of the collection and continues by describing its context, perhaps providing an inventory outlining what is in each box. Sometimes, it contains physical details, such as fragile material or brittle paper. A catalog record is a shorter version of a finding aid.

Organization of Information in Libraries:

Library materials are organized or arranged by classification, which is part of the process of cataloging. Cataloging of materials usually involve creating a physical description of each individual item; choosing related names and titles to act as keywords for searches; conducting a subject analysis on the contents of the item; choosing subject headings and classification notations that represent the subject analysis; assigning a call number to the item. Physical items have to be processed according to each library’s specification. It may include removing or adding a book jacket and labeling the item with call numbers and barcodes. These processed items are then referred to as collections. Catalogs provide major access to a library’s collection. The catalog is able to show what the library has and is arranged by authors, titles, and subjects. The catalog is also able to show exactly where a particular item may be located.

Model of Organizing Information

Ronald Hagler (1997), identified six major activities as being involved in the organization of recorded information:

1. Identifying the existence of all types of information packages as they are made available.
   
2. Identifying the works contained within those information packages or as part of them.
   
3. Systematically pulling together these information packages into collections in libraries, archives, museums, Internet communication files, and other such depositories.
   
4. Producing lists of these information packages prepared according to standard rules for citation.
   
5. Providing name, title, subject, and other useful access to these information packages.
   
6. Providing the means of locating each information package or a copy of it (p. 19).