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Library, Archival, and Information Studies

Welcome! This research guide has been developed to help UBC iSchool students, faculty and researchers find and navigate academic and professional resources relating to the study of Library, Archival and Information Studies.

What is Knowledge Organization?

The term knowledge organization systems is intended to encompass all types of schemes for organizing information and promoting knowledge management. Knowledge organization systems include classification schemes that organize materials at a general level (such as books on a shelf), subject headings that provide more detailed access, and authority files that control variant versions of key information (such as geographic names and personal names). They also include less-traditional schemes, such as semantic networks and ontologies. Because knowledge organization systems are mechanisms for organizing information, they are at the heart of every library, museum, and archive. (CLIR, Knowledge Organization Systems - An Overview)

ISO

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 162 national standards bodies.

The ISO Standards provide specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency. These standards are used in many of the courses related to archival studies and records management. 

To learn how to find ISO Standards at UBC Library, go to the ISO Standards Guide

Additional Records Management Standards

Cataloguing and Descriptive Schema

  • Library of Congress Classification
    Print volumes  - Z696 U5 [Class A-Z]
    Online - Library of Congress Classification Schedules

  • Library of Congress Subject Headings
    Print volumes - The big red books! - Z695 U4749 - latest edition at Koerner Reference Desk
    Online - authority headings from Library of Congress for Subject headings, Title
  • MeSH - Medical Subject Headings
    Print volumes in UBC Library
    Online -  from the US National Library of Medicine
  • AACR2 - Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
    Online -  Information about AACR2
    Print volume in UBC Library
  • FRBR - Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Methods
    What is FRBR? - Library of Congress
    FRBR blog 
    Information from OCLC
  • Rules for Archival Description - RAD
    Print volume in UBC Library
    Online - Canadian Committee on Archival Description
  • Encoded Archival Description - EAD
    Print volume in UBC Library
    Online -  Library of Congress

ISBN/ISMN

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a number assigned to each edition and variation (except reprintings) of a book. There are 13 digit and 10 digit long ISBNs.  The 13 digit ISBN is assigned on or after 1 January 2007.  The 10 digit ISBN was assigned before 2007.

The International Standard Music Number (ISMN) is a number assigned to notated music publications, including a part, a score, etc.  As of January 2008, the ISMN is a 13 digit number.