Dear colleagues,
This is your last chance to book for:
The Great Debate: "This House believes that the traditional
thesaurus has no place in modern information retrieval",
preceded by ISKO UK AGM
Afternoon of Thursday, 19th February, at the British Dental
Association, 64 Wimpole St, London.
Book by Feb 15th at <http://www.iskouk.org/events/debate_Feb_2015.htm>
Once upon a time, the thesaurus was venerated. It marked a
breakthrough in the retrieval of very specific needles of
information hidden in large haystacks. Some of the veneration rubbed
off on to the trained information professionals, who alone mastered
the occult art of using it to concoct effective search strategies.
All this was in the time before we had a computer on every desk,
when a collection of 10,000 articles was considered large, and long
before the Google era.
But now, who has the patience to consult a complicated thesaurus?
Only a dedicated few. Has the thesaurus passed its sell-by date? And
even its use-by date? Join us at the Great Debate, where you'll
get a chance to air your own views, and perhaps win over some
voters. Can you point to the way ahead - whether it involves
effective thesaurus use behind the scenes, or bypasses all
vocabulary aids on the route to retrieval success?
Leading the assault on thesauri will be consultants Judi Vernau and
Helen Lippell, both of them experienced in user expectations and
technology-driven opportunities. Defending the thesaurus
fortifications, Vanda Broughton of University College London and
Leonard Will of Willpower Information will man the buttresses of
faceted construction techniques. As and when the audience threatens
to storm the barricades, the job of maintaining order will fall to
Martin White, our Chairman for the afternoon.
At 13.00 hrs on the same day ISKO UK will be holding its AGM, at
which non-members are welcome as observers, while members are urged
to come and help us make the right decisions for 2015.
After the AGM at 13.00 on 19th February,
registration for the Debate opens at 13.30 and the main proceedings
will start at 14.00 hrs. Please book by 15th February at
latest. Full details are on the ISKO UK site at http://www.iskouk.org/events/debate_Feb_2015.htm
. The event is free to ISKO members and to full-time students. The
fee for non-members is just £40. All fees must be paid in advance -
there is no provision for payment on arrival. Please pass this
invitation on to any colleagues who may be interested.
ISKO is a not-for-profit scientific/professional association with
the objective of promoting research and communication in the domain
of knowledge organization, within the broad field of information
science and related disciplines. Founded in 2007, our UK Chapter has
been attracting lively and steadily growing audiences to its
afternoon meeting series (see slides and recordings at http://www.iskouk.org/events.htm)
as well as its very successful third biennial conference (http://www.iskouk.org/conf2013/index.htm)
last year.
ISKO UK publicity
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