The Ethics of Information Organization

May 22-23, 2009
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Information organization (IO), like other major functions of the information profession, faces many ethical challenges. In the IO literature, ethical concerns have been raised with regard to, for example, the role of national and international IO standards, providing subject access to information, deprofessionalization and outsourcing of IO, education of IO professionals, and the effects of globalization. These issues, and others like them, have serious implications for quality and equity in information access. The Center for Information Policy Research and the Information Organization Research Group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee join in presenting this conference to address the ethics of information organization.

The themes of the conference may include, but are not limited to, ethical aspects of and approaches to:

    * The role of standards in IO
    * Subject access to information
    * Description and Metadata
    * Folksonomies and social tagging as IO
    * Day-to-day practice in IO
    * Professionalism and IO
    * Education for IO
    * Culture and IO
    * Economic, social and political factors in IO
    * International, multicultural and multilingual aspects of IO

The keynote speakers will be:

    * Clare Beghtol, Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
    * Jos� Augusto Chaves Guimar�es, Professor, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil
    * Janet Swan Hill, Professor, Associate Director for Technical Services, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, USA

We invite interested participants to submit proposals for papers to include: name(s) of presenter(s), title(s), affiliation(s), contact information and abstracts of 300-500 words. Presentations will be 30 minutes. Time will be set aside for questions as well as broader discussion. All abstracts will be published on the Web site of the UW-Milwaukee Center for Information Policy Research. Full papers will be further reviewed for publication in a special issue of Cataloging and Classification Quarterly.

   Abstracts due: January 1, 2009
   Notification of acceptance by: February 1, 2009
   Full papers due: April 3, 2009

Submit proposals electronically to: Hur-Li Lee, Chair of the Program Committee (hurli@uwm.edu)

Program Committee:

    * Grant Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario, Canada
    * Allyson Carlyle, Associate Professor, University of Washington
    * Clara M. Chu, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
    * Edwin Michael Cortez, Professor/Director, University of Tennessee
    * Birger Hj�rland, Professor, The Royal School of Library and Information Science in Denmark
    * Hur-Li Lee (Chair) Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
    * Steven J. Miller, Senior Lecturer, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
    * Hope A. Olson, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
    * Sandra Roe, Editor, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly , Bibliographic Services Librarian, Milner Library, Illinois State University
    * Richard P. Smiraglia, Professor, Long Island University
    * Michael Zimmer, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Sponsors:

    * Center for Information Policy Research, UW-Milwaukee
    * Information Organization Research Group at UW-Milwaukee
    * University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries
    * Milwaukee Public Libraries

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