ISKO UK News

Videos from Conference 2023 are now available on YouTube

Eugene Morozov — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 02:19:10 GMT

All videos from Conference 2023 are now available on ISKO UK YouTube Channel. Day 1 talks, including the Keynote from Ian Ruthven "Becoming Different: Information Behaviours During Times of Personal Change" are in the ISKO UK Conference 2023 - Day 1 playlist. Day 2 talks, including "Visual Representations of Knowledge Structures for Information Discovery" by Marcia Zeng are in the ISKO UK Conference 2023 - Day 2 playlist.

Slides and video from May 2025 ISKO UK Meetup

Eugene Morozov — Fri, 23 May 2025 08:30:42 GMT

Slides and video from the ISKO UK Meetup on the 20th of May 2025 are now available on the event page A Survey on Knowledge Organization Systems of Research Fields: Resources and Challenges. You can also find the video on the ISKO UK YouTube Channel.

New in ISKO UK governance

Aida Slavic — Mon, 05 May 2025 16:54:02 GMT

The 8th ISKO UK Annual General Meeting took place on 30 April 2025 and at this meeting we elected Aida Slavic as the ISKO UK Chair and Eugene Morozov as Vice-Chair. We also extended the mandate for the treasurer Duncan McKay.

The AGM thanked Sylvie Davies, the ISKO UK Chair (2021-2025) who retired from her position after a very successful mandate. Sylvie served with dedication and diligence, first as the Chapter's secretary (from 2017) and then as the Chair. We also expressed our gratitude to our long serving Executive Committee member and former Chair (2015-2017) Judi Vernau who left the committee.

Videos from April ISKO UK Meetup are now available

Eugene Morozov — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 20:26:24 GMT

Videos from the ISKO UK Meetup on the 8th of April 2024 Semantic Web for BIM Based Construction Management are now available on ISKO UK YouTube Channel.

Marcela Alves' report on the Complexity Science Hub Winter School 2025 experience

Hye Lim Nam — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:44:26 GMT

ISKO UK was delighted to support Marcela Alves, a doctoral candidate in Computer Science at the University of Oxford, to attend the 2025 Complexity Science Hub Winter School in Vienna, Austria.

Marcela studies machine learning network architectures that can better represent phenomena such as the economy. The next step in Marcela's research will be applying Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) to investigate how agents can be powered by cognitively plausible knowledge structures (e.g., semantic memory models) to simulate learning or problem-solving in populations, which is of relevance to the KO community.

Marcela's report on her time at the Complexity Science Winter School is below.

Report on Attendance at the Complexity Science Hub Winter School 2025

From February 23rd to 28th, I attended the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Winter School 2025 in Vienna. This event brought together graduate students from diverse disciplines to explore the role of complexity science in understanding dynamic systems. It gave me a unique opportunity to interact with the CSH experts—who are developing state-of-the-art methods—and explore new methodologies relevant to Knowledge Organization (KO).

The Winter School was structured to foster both theoretical and practical engagement. Dr Elma Hot Dervic's lecture on networks and community detection was particularly relevant to KO principles, as network analysis plays a crucial role in knowledge representation, classification, and the study of evolving relationships within information systems. Understanding how communities form and shift within complex networks can inform the development of ontologies and taxonomies that dynamically adapt to real-world changes. I was particularly interested in the lecture led by Dr Jan Korbel on statistical physics for social science. His lecture provided a framework for applying mathematical models to understand social dynamics, directly impacting bibliographic information systems and metadata management. Dr Vito Servedio expanded on these themes, offering perspectives on how complexity science can enhance our understanding of social networks and labour market transitions—an area of particular interest for my collaboration during the Winter School.

One of the most enriching aspects of the programme was the group project. These "mini-projects" allowed participants to discuss how to apply theoretical concepts to real-world problems. I partnered with Dr Laura Fürsich from the University of Chicago to investigate how changes in flow structures within graphs can provide insights into labour market shifts, an idea built upon discussions from Dr Elma Hot Dervic's lecture. The final day of the Winter School was dedicated to project presentations. Dr Fürsich and I pitched a paper proposal on exploring how job transitions could be modelled using knowledge graphs to detect emerging trends in employment sectors. This aligns with KO principles, as knowledge graphs - represented by complex networks or graphs - serve as powerful tools for organising and interpreting dynamic information landscapes. We believe that integrating such analytical methods into existing KO frameworks—such as those used in governmental labour statistics and business process modelling—could enhance predictive insights and policy-making. Beyond the formal sessions, the Winter School also had group lunches and dinners, providing ample opportunities for networking and informal discussions.

My participation in the Complexity Science Hub Winter School was very beneficial. The interdisciplinary nature of the Winter School reinforced the importance of KO techniques in making sense of complex datasets and the relevance of classification systems, ontologies, and knowledge graphs in a wide range of domains. I would like to express my gratitude to the International Society for Knowledge Organization UK (ISKO UK) for their support, which made my participation possible through its grants for students and new graduates. The insights gained during this event will contribute to my future research, consequently resulting in my contribution to the KO community and beyond.

ISKO Scientific and Technical Advisory Council (STAC) seeking new members

Hye Lim Nam — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:20:25 GMT

ISKO-STAC (International Society for Knowledge Organization – Scientific and Technical Advisory Council) has 6 openings for four-year terms, July 2025 - July 2029. As well as ISKO members, ISKO also welcomes non-ISKO members on to the Council, to cover the many disciplines that contribute to KO.

To express an interest in joining STAC, please email deborah.lee@ucl.ac.uk and ds@dsoergel.com by 15 April 2025 with a brief explanation of why you are interested and what role you would like to play in STAC. Attach (1) Your CV and (2) the completed ISKO-STAC Areas of Expertise Form (ISKO-STAC-AreasOfExpertiseAndWorkingGroups.docx).

If you can suggest anyone whom we could approach about joining STAC, please email deborah.lee@ucl.ac.uk.

About STAC

STAC advises the ISKO membership and the ISKO Board of Directors on ongoing developments in KO research and technology and on areas where more research and development is needed.

In line with ISKO's mission, the Council is concerned with the scholarship, theory, principles, and applications of the pervasive subject of Knowledge Organization:

as dealt with in Information Studies, Philosophy, the Ontology community, Psychology & Cognitive Science, Linguistics, CS (Data Modeling, AI, ML), Taxonomies; data schemas & formats;

as applied in, among others, libraries & bibliographic systems, the Web, archives; museums, cultural heritage; process modelling; information systems, including health, finance, legal, government, etc.

Some of these involve leading a special activity of STAC.

See Terms of Reference:

https://www.isko.org/stac/tor.docx and https://www.dsoergel.com/ISKO-STAC-Documents/ISKO-STAC-AnnualReport-2023-2024V2.pdf

Please note the STAC member responsibilities when considering applying for this committee:

STAC member responsibilities

A1 Minimum responsibilities

A1.1  Participate in STAC meetings (six per year) and online discussions.

A1.2  Participate actively in at least one STAC working group.

A1.3  Be prepared to serve as reviewer for the Official Journal of the Society and for the ISKO Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organization (IEKO), up to two submissions a year in total.

A1.4  Be active in ISKO conferences (international or regional/chapter) (e.g. attend, submit papers, review submissions, serve on the organization and/or program committees, help in the promotion). Be prepared to review up to three conference submissions a year.

A1.5 [Under consideration Participate in creating at least two of: Structured Abstract or Contribution Synopsis of a paper; two-page Concept Brief. Can be of one's own paper or prepared as part of reviewing a submission.]

A2 Extended responsibilities

A2.1  Submit papers to ISKO publications, the Official Journal of the Society, the ISKO Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organization (IEKO), and conferences.

A2.2 Encourage renowned authors across disciplines (especially disciplines that need stronger representation) to submit papers to ISKO publications or suggest authors to be invited.

A2.3  Propose topics for special issues of the Official Journal of the Society and perhaps work on creating the special issue, possibly as (co-) editor.

A2.4  Promote new papers/articles in ISKO publications by posting short announcements in listservs / social media whose readership would benefit from being aware of the paper.

If you have any questions, then please do not hesitate to email Dr. Deborah Lee (deborah.lee@ucl.ac.uk) and/or Prof. Dagobert Soergel (ds@dsoergel.com).

Latest issue of Knowledge Organization Journal published

Hye Lim Nam — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 10:47:05 GMT

The latest issue of the Knowledge Organization Journal, vol. 51, issue 8, has been published. We invite you to read and share this work, which you can find here: https://doi.org/10.5771/0943-7444-2024-8

Call for Speakers: Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camp 2025

Hye Lim Nam — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 08:11:22 GMT

Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camp Online, in partnership with ISKO UK, is calling for speakers for its 2025 series. These half-day live webinars, scheduled for March, June, and October, attract a global audience eager to learn from practical use cases, projects, tools, techniques, and how-tos.

As a partner of Taxonomy Boot Camp London (TBL), ISKO UK supports the effort to showcase taxonomy and knowledge organisation strategies to a wide audience. Importantly, the sessions are not limited to taxonomies—TBL encourages topics on diverse aspects of knowledge representation and organisation.

This is a fantastic opportunity for all in the ISKO UK community working or conducting research in taxonomy and related fields to share their experiences and insights.

Submit Your Session Proposal

For suggested topics and to submit your presentation ideas, visit:
https://www.taxonomybootcamp.com/London/2025/CallForSpeakers.aspx

Videos and slides from November ISKO UK Meetup are now available

Eugene Morozov — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 23:38:32 GMT

Video from the ISKO UK Meetup on the 19th of November 2024 Introducing Jekyll RDF with Dr. Natanael Arndt from The German National Library are now available on ISKO UK YouTube Channel. You can also find the slides on the event page.

Report from the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE) Conference 2024, in Montreal, Canada

Eugene Morozov — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 06:37:23 GMT

Report from the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE) Conference 2024 by Asha Palihakkara, a PhD Student at the University of Nottingham, is now available on International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, 2024, Montreal, Canada.

Conference reports from the earlier recipients of the ISKO UK Student Grant are available on Conference reports.

Videos and slides from October ISKO UK Meetup are now available

Eugene Morozov — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 22:24:39 GMT

Videos from ISKO UK Meetup on the 8th of October 2024 - What's New in Skosmos 3 with Osma Suominen from The National Library of Finland - are now available on ISKO UK YouTube Channel. You can also find the slides on the event page.

Papers from seventh ISKO UK conference now published

Hye Lim Nam — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:35:45 GMT

Select papers from the seventh ISKO UK conference (2023) held in Glasgow have been published in a recent issue of the Knowledge Organization journal. They can be accessed here.

Please note that ISKO UK members can access Knowledge Organization journal articles for free. Should you encounter any issues, please contact Nomos quoting your ISKO UK number which features on your profile page once you log into the ISKO UK website.

Nomination deadline for Tony Kent Strix Award coming soon (27 Sep)

Hye Lim Nam — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 10:02:22 GMT

Nominations are open for this year's Tony Kent Strix Award, an international award in the field of information retrieval. The award is open to individuals or groups from anywhere in the world, and nominations must reach UKeiG by 6 pm GMT on Friday 27th September 2024.

About the Tony Kent Strix Award

The Tony Kent Strix Award was inaugurated in 1998 by the Institute of Information Scientists. It is presented by UKeiG in partnership with the International Society for Knowledge Organization UK (ISKO UK), the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Information and Computer Applications Group (RSC CICAG) and the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group (BCS IRSG) and awarded in recognition of an outstanding practical innovation or achievement in the field of information retrieval and search. Nominations must be for a major, sustained or influential achievement that meets one or more of the criteria listed below.

Science

The advancement of our understanding of information retrieval methods, experimentation and evaluation, at either the theoretical or the practical level. The scope includes approaches as diverse as linguistic, probabilistic, fact-checking or artificial intelligence applied to search.

Service Delivery

The development and management of systems, networks or services:

Enhancement of the mechanisms/technology/standards underpinning information products or services
Establishing an innovative information resource or service
Innovations leading to improved accessibility/usability of information resources.

Education and organisational infrastructure

The provision of leadership in education, training, community development and/or collaboration to advance information retrieval at local, national or international level.

Submission guidelines

In all cases nominations should take the form of a succinct justification (maximum 2 pages) for the individual or team nomination showing clearly which of the award criteria the nominee meets and how they are met. Please include full contact details, job title and qualifications of both the nominee and the nominator emailed to Richard Bridgen – Hon. Secretary UKeiG secretary.ukeig@cilip.org.uk and copied to: Gary Horrocks - info.ukeig@cilip.org.uk and Elizabeth Roberts – Hon. Treasurer UKeiG treasurer.ukeig@cilip.org.uk.

Please clarify in the email subject heading - ‘UKeiG 2024 award nomination’ - followed by the award name.

Self-nominations will not be accepted.

If you want your nomination to be considered in two or all three of the specified award areas, please clarify that in your justification.

Please include testimonials, letters of support, references, a selective bibliography relevant to the nomination, or links to supplementary information including professional profiles or social media, for example.

Please email info.ukeig@cilip.org.uk for more information and guidance.

Deadline

Nominations must reach the UKeiG by 6 pm GMT on Friday 27th September 2024.

Videos from September ISKO UK Meetup are now available on YouTube

Eugene Morozov — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 08:31:40 GMT

Videos from ISKO UK Meetup on the 3rd of September - Documents, Databases, Knowledge Graphs, LLMs and Their Common Roots in Natural Language with John O'Gorman from Semantium - are now available on ISKO UK YouTube Channel and the event page.

Search Solutions 2024 - London, 27 November 2024

Hye Lim Nam — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:08:36 GMT

ISKO UK is partnering with the British Computer Society (BCS) Information Retrieval Specialist Group for Search Solutions 2024. Search Solutions is the BCS Information Retrieval Specialist Group's annual event focused on practitioner issues in the arena of search and information retrieval. Contributions from ISKO UK this year include a talk on Data catalogue search and Browse use cases in data governance.

ISKO members will receive a discounted registration rate. Registration can be completed here.

For additional information, please see: https://iskouk.org/search-solutions-2024

Introducing the Information Revolution podcast

Hye Lim Nam — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 08:42:49 GMT

Information Revolution is a podcast hosted by ISKO UK member Judi Vernau (Metataxis UK and NZ), along with colleagues Karl Melrose (Leadership Through Data) and Michael Upton (Metataxis NZ). The podcast is an informal discussion between Judi, Karl, and Michael (and occasional guests) about current topics in information management practice such as information asset registers and domain modelling.

Listen to insights from industry insiders via your podcast app or find them on YouTube!

Conference grant awarded to Asha Palihakkara

Hye Lim Nam — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:05:26 GMT

We are pleased to announce that ISKO UK, as part of its grants programme, has awarded a conference grant to Asha Dulanjalie Palihakkara to present a paper at the upcoming conference of the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE) in Montreal, Canada. Asha is a second-year PhD student at the University of Nottingham and will be presenting a paper titled “Semantic web for BIM-based automated project management and control: a review”. Asha's research focuses on the application of semantic web technologies and ontologies for construction progress monitoring, an area in civil engineering that intersects with knowledge organisation.

Call to sit on the judging panel of the Tony Kent Strix Award for Information Retrieval

Hye Lim Nam — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 07:55:11 GMT

For some years, ISKO UK has been a partner in the organisation of the Tony Kent Strix Award for Information Retrieval along with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Chemical Information and Computer Applications Group and the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group (BCS IRSG). The award is now presented by the UK electronic information Group (UKeiG)

We are now looking for a member of ISKO UK to sit on the judging panel for the award (see list of past winners). It is a very rewarding position to be in as it is gives the opportunity to review high quality applications from all over the world. Apart from being an ISKO UK member, the main requisite is to be interested and knowledgeable in the field of Information Retrieval. The incoming representative will be briefed by Stella Dextre Clarke who has held the position for many years and is now stepping down. Anyone one interested should contact the ISKO UK Chair at chair@iskouk.org in the first instance.

ISKO UK Meetup - What's New in Skosmos 3

Eugene Morozov — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 20:27:38 GMT

We are happy to announce that Osma Suominen from the National Library of Finland will join us at the ISKO UK Meetup on the 8th of October 2024 to discuss what's new in Skosmos, an open-source, web-based SKOS browser and publishing tool designed to access controlled vocabularies for indexing, information retrieval and vocabulary development. Join our meetup.com group to be notified when registration opens.

Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camp 2024 - call for speakers

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 16:42:38 GMT

Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camp has just announced its call for speakers for 2024.

The deadline is 31 December this year, and four events are planned in 2024 – including the newly-introduced Boot Camp BASICS event, which welcomes brand new taxonomists and knowledge managers.

Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camp' organisers are always looking to showcase the very best insights and practices in taxonomy and related work. They welcome contributions from taxonomy practitioners, content strategists, technologists, knowledge engineers, researchers, developers, information architects, product managers, and more. And, while taxonomies are at the heart of their annual virtual series, they cover a vast range of topics around knowledge and information management too.

Tony Kent Strix Award Memorial Lecture on Tuesday 5th December 2023

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 13:41:09 GMT

This year, for the first time, there is a single joint winner of both
the Tony Kent Strix Award and the Jason Farradane Award, namely Martin
White FBCS FRSC, HonFCLIP, Principal Analyst at SearchReseach Online.

The Jason Farradane Award is presented in recognition of an outstanding
contribution to the library and information science profession.

The Tony Kent Strix Memorial Award is given in recognition of an
outstanding contribution to the field of search and information retrieval.

You are warmly invited to attend the free presentation and celebration
on the afternoon of Tuesday 5th December 2023, when Martin will give a
special free Zoom lecture as part of the programme below. The event is
free but please note you must make a booking in advance. For further details and registration, please go to:

https://www.cilip.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1800137&group=201314
<https://www.cilip.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1800137&group=201314>

ISKO UK Meetup events starting again in early 2024

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 17:32:44 GMT

As announced at the last Meetup on Information Governance by Noeleen Schenk, the ISKO UK Meetup team is taking a break for the winter and will come back with a new programme in the spring of 2024.

Meanwhile we thank all who have supported our events by attending and participating in the discussion.

The ISKO UK Meetup team.

ISKO UK 2023 Conference - Slides available

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 16:58:55 GMT

Slides covering the whole programme are available here.

Delegates and ISKO members will be able to access the video-recordings by the end of September.

ISKO UK Meetup YouTube Playlist

Eugene Morozov — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 13:18:12 GMT

The entire ISKO UK 2022 and 2023 Meetup Playlist is now available on YouTube. To receive notifications for future events please subscribe to Knowledge Organisation London group on Meetup.com.

ISKO UK 2023, Glasgow 24-25 July - Call for Papers

Aida Slavic — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 10:10:02 GMT

"Knowledge Organization and Information Discovery: Improving User Experience, Quality and Trust", the 7th biennial ISKO UK Conference. The conference will take place on 24-25 July 2023 at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and online.

The objective of the conference is to promote discussion and understanding about the benefits of knowledge organization and the way it can encourage user engagement and interaction with information.

Contributions are invited in the form of extended abstracts. See details and submission instructions at https://www.iskouk.org/conf2023/cfp.

Tony Kent Strix Award 2022 - Submission of nominations by 30 September

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 11:12:10 GMT

The Tony Kent Strix Award is given in recognition of an outstanding practical innovation or achievement in the field of information retrieval in its widest sense. This could take the form of an application or service, or an overall appreciation of past achievements that have led to significant advances. The award is open to individuals or groups from anywhere in the world.

Nominations must be for a major, sustained or influential achievement that meets one or more of the following criteria:

Science: The advancement of our understanding of information retrieval methods, experimentation and evaluation, at either the theoretical or the practical level. The scope includes approaches as diverse as linguistic, probabilistic, fact-checking or artificial intelligence applied to search.

Service Delivery: The development and management of systems, networks or services:

Enhancement of the mechanisms/technology/standards underpinning information products or services
Establishing an innovative information resource or service
Innovations leading to improved accessibility/usability of information resources.

Education and organisational infrastructure: The provision of leadership in education, training, community development and/or collaboration to advance information retrieval at local, national or international level.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Submissions must include:

The name, institutional address and qualifications of the nominee
A brief biography - (maximum one A4 page)
A selective bibliography - (key publications relevant to the nomination)
A justification for the nomination - (maximum one A4 page) showing clearly which of the award criteria the nominee meets and how they are met
Additional material - letters of support, for example. (Letters from previous winners would be especially valuable).

It is possible that the Award Committee will request additional information from the nominators for those nominees considered suitable candidates for the award.

An unsuccessful nomination from previous years may be reconsidered provided the nominator updates it, if necessary, to reflect the current extent of the candidate's achievement.

Nominations for the 2022 award must reach the judges by 6 pm GMT on Friday 30^th September 2022.

Please email to: John Wickenden – Hon. Secretary UKeiG secretary.ukeig@cilip.org.uk

and copy in: Gary Horrocks - UKeiG administrator info.ukeig@cilip.org.uk and Sue Silcocks – Hon. Treasurer UKeiG treasurer.ukeig@cilip.org.uk

For more information about UKeiG, the Tony Kent Strix Award and previous winners of this prestigious international award please visit: https://www.cilip.org.uk/members/group_content_view.asp?group=201314&id=712682

17th ISKO Conference - final programme

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 10:20:43 GMT

The 17th ISKO Conference, Aalborg University, Denmark (and online)

6 -8 July 2022

"Knowledge Organization across disciplines, domains, services and technologies."

View final programme

Details and registration

A new book on taxonomies has just been published!

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 08:56:35 GMT

You may be interested to know that Facet Publishing has just published a new book on taxonomies to which some of our members have contributed.

"Taxonomies is a curated anthology of case studies of taxonomy projects that showcases the incredible breadth and depth of work being done by taxonomists across many different types of sectors and organisations. The book aims to inspire and educate anyone who needs to organise information and data."

See details here

Provisional programme of ISKO 2022 Conference in Aalborg is available

Mon, 23 May 2022 14:32:10 GMT

The provisional programme of the ISKO 2022 Conference in Aalborg, Denmark, is available on the conference website. Note that it is subject to change.

The two keynote speakers invited are:

Professor Jens-Erik Mai who will speak about classification in the algorithmic age.
Professor Kora Golub who will speak about subject access for digital humanities.

Sessions will cover a wide variety of topics such as:

Knowledge Organization theory and concepts
Application of Knowledge Organization in different contexts, with specific examples
Development of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS)
Knowledge Organization educational practices
Knowledge Organization and nations

Deadline for early bird registration is extended to 1 June 2022. The registration options include participation in the full 3-days physical conference held in Aalborg and virtual participation. Virtual participation includes the following:

Access to all paper sessions, including full Research papers and short research papers
Access to keynotes from invited speakers
Access to interactive events such as workshops and panels
Access to poster session
Access to ISKO conference proceedings 2022

Further details are available here and for questions or concerns regarding registration, please contact the conference chair Marianne Lykke

New! KO-ED series Exploring Information Retrieval starts on 3 Feb 2022

Aida Slavic — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 21:02:36 GMT

ISKO UK event team is pleased to announce the new series of nine Knowledge Organization Education (KO-ED) lectures entitled "Exploring Information Retrieval", starting on 3 February 2022.

This KO-ED series is organized in collaboration with Information Retrieval Specialist Group of the British Computer Society (IRSG BCS). Lectures provide an introduction to the Information Retrieval and an up-to-date overview of some fundamental concepts, techniques and applications.

Registration is free for ISKO or BCS members.

Slides available from the "Introduction to Wikibase" meetup

Eugene Morozov — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 18:21:31 GMT

Many thanks to our speakers Georgina Burnett and Mohammed Sadat Abdulai from Wikimedia, for their introduction to Wikibase on Wednesday, 23 November.

Presentation slides for both the introduction and the hands-on session that used data risk management and collaborative threat modelling as a use case are now available on the event page.

ISKO 2022 Conference – 6-8 July in Aalborg and online - Submission deadline extended

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 15:26:44 GMT

The 17th International ISKO Conference. 6 – 8 July 2022

Aalborg (Denmark) and Online

Knowledge Organization across Disciplines, Domains, Services, and Technologies

We have received several inquiries regarding submission deadline extension. As this is the first time that the ISKO conference requires fully-developed papers for review, we have decided to extend the deadline for full papers, short papers, and posters to 05 January 2022.

Deadlines for submissions are thus:

Full papers, short papers, or posters for review: 05 January 2022.

Notification for acceptance of full papers, short papers, and posters: 01 March 2022

Round table discussions and workshop proposals: 15 February 2022.

Notification for acceptance of round table discussions and workshop proposals: 01 March 2022

Due to the continued uncertainty about COVID-19 travel restrictions, we have decided that the conference will be held both in person and online on 6-8 July 2022. All authors will have the opportunity to present their papers and posters, regardless of whether they attend in-person or online. The in-person location will be in Aalborg, Denmark.

Online attendance details will be provided when the conference program is published. Some conference activities, for example highly interactive workshops, may only be available for in-person participants.

Further details at:

https://www.communication.aau.dk/research/knowledge_groups/e-learning-lab/isko/

Presentations available from the KORO event "Research Repositories and Dataverse"

Aida Slavic — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 12:45:07 GMT

Many thanks to our speakers Slava Tykhonov and Andrea Scharnhorst and their DANS KNAW colleagues and Philipp Conzett and Helene Andreassen from The Arctic University Norway - for their presentation on Wednesday 24 November.

Presentation slides are now available on the event page. ISKO members can request recordings by emailing vicechair [AT] iskouk [DOT] org.

Presentation slides available: FAIR Principles and Semantic Interoperability

Aida Slavic — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 08:40:07 GMT

Many thanks to Marcia Zeng and Gerard Coen for providing the very valuable contribution to the topic of FAIR principles, on Wednesday, 27 October.

Presentation slides are now available on the event page. ISKO members can request recordings by emailing vicechair [AT] iskouk [DOT] org.

ISKO 2022 Conference – Knowledge Organization across Disciplines, Domains, Services, and Technologies " - Call for papers

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 10:07:09 GMT

https://www.communication.aau.dk/research/knowledge_groups/e-learning-lab/isko/

“Knowledge Organization across Disciplines, Domains, Services, and Technologies "

The 17th international ISKO Conference, will be held in Aalborg, Denmark from 6-8 July 2022.

This ISKO conference explores how knowledge organization can both draw upon and inform diverse disciplines and technological developments. It will also explore how best to combine theory and practice. The conference will consider practical solutions as well as the theory behind the design, development and implementation of knowledge organizing systems, ranging from controlled vocabularies, classification systems, metadata schemas through to ontologies and taxonomies.

We welcome proposals for full papers, short papers, posters, round table discussions, and workshops. All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

We look forward to your contribution!

Conference website:

https://www.communication.aau.dk/research/knowledge_groups/e-learning-lab/isko/

Presentation slides available - KO Research Observatory - Research Fields Classifications: Essential Tools in Reporting and Harmonising Scientific Information

Aida Slavic — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:57:52 GMT

Many thanks to our speakers Hanne Poelmans (Hasselt University) and Sophie Biesenbender (German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies) for presenting their projects on research field classifications.

Presentation slides are now available on the event page.

Presentation slides available - ISKO UK Meetup - Copyright in the knowledge organization workplace by Stephen Garfield

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 16:21:39 GMT

Stephen Garfield gave a very comprehensive overview of "Copyright in the knowledge organisation work place" on 12 September 2021.

Presentation slides are available here.

Spotlight on the ISKO UK Executive Committee

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 10:56:50 GMT

Thanks to our web editor's effort and contribution by committee members, you can now learn more about the members who make up the ISKO UK Executive Committee.

See their members' profile at https://www.iskouk.org/ISKO-UK-Committee

Presentation slides available - ISKO UK Meetup - On the pre-history of information technology

Aida Slavic — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 10:50:13 GMT

ISKO UK Meetup - On the pre-history of information technology by Stephen Robertson took place on 6 July 2021.

Presentation slides are available here.

Presentation Slides available - KO Research Observatory - Observing knowledge organization trajectories in healthcare

Aida Slavic — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 13:35:36 GMT

ISKO UK KO Research Observatory event entitled "Observing knowledge organization trajectories in healthcare", took place on 30 June 2021 via Zoom and consisted of two presentations.

Presentation slides are now available here.

Presentation slides available - ISKO UK Meetup - MS Teams – The case for Information Architecture and Governance

Thu, 27 May 2021 12:08:15 GMT

In this presentation Alex Church addressed the issues and challenges organisations and information managers are facing with the introduction of MS teams, providing practical advice on how to address them, focusing on the developing a robust information architecture and governance .

Slides are available here

Presentation slides available - ISKO UK Meetup - Beyond the Hero’s Journey: the Architecture, Structure and Strategy of Narrative by Paul Rissen

Thu, 27 May 2021 12:02:06 GMT

In this talk Paul Rissen from Springer Nature has demystified the process of crafting a narrative, showing how information architecture and structured thinking can help us make sense of the stories we tell ourselves every day.

Slides are available here

In memory of Liz Marley 1967-2021

Thu, 20 May 2021 20:57:24 GMT

With sadness we report the sudden death of Liz Marley on 14 April 2021, at the age of 53. She was a member of the Indexing and Data Management team at the House of Commons Library and she became its first ever Thesaurus Editor.

Among other commitments, she was a member of the Executive Committee of ISKO UK from 2015 to 2017 and a member of Taxonomies in the Public Sector (TiPS). Liz was a familiar face at Taxonomy Boot Camp London and ISKO UK conferences bringing common sense and a practical approach to the organisational side of the events, as well as humour and interesting conversations in the coffee breaks and social evenings.

She was generous with her time, often helping fellow taxonomists at the weekends for fun, in spite of her frequent travels to Morocco to advise the Moroccan Parliament on developing their information services.

We, at ISKO UK, wish to express our sincere condolences to Liz's family and friends.

Presentation slides and video recordings: VocBench Workshops Part 1 and Part 2

Aida Slavic — Thu, 13 May 2021 11:08:48 GMT

Presentation slides and video recordings are now available for the first two VocBench Workshops organized by ISKO UK Meetup Team. Many thanks to Armando Stellato, Phil Stacey and Eugene Morozov.

ISKO UK Hands-on Meetup: VocBench Workshops: Part 1: Introducing VocBench, 6 April 2021. See event page.

ISKO UK Hands-on Meetup: VocBench Workshops: Part 2: VocBench Data Import with Sheet2RDF, 4 May 2021. See event page.

Presentation slides available - Research Observatory: Computational ethnography by Martin White

Aida Slavic — Thu, 13 May 2021 11:00:08 GMT

Many thanks to Martin White for his excellent overview of computational ethnography on 28 April 2021. Presentation slides with additional references are now available at the event page.

Presentation Slides available - AI in supporting fact checking, news verification and creative work

Aida Slavic — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 11:22:59 GMT

Thanks to our speakers Andrew MacFarlane, Sondess Missaoui and Neil Maiden for kickstarting our first KO Research Observatory event "AI in supporting fact checking, news verification and creative work" . The event took place via zoom on 31 Mar 2021 and was attended by 67 participants from 25 countries. Presentation slides can be found on the event page.

VocBench Workshop series from 06 April 2021

Aida Slavic — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 11:13:19 GMT

ISKO UK Meetup starts a series of VocBench Workshops. VocBench is a free and open-source web application to build ontologies, knowledge organization systems and lexicons using web standards such as OWL, SKOS/SKOS-XL and Onto-Lex. The three-part workshop series on VocBench is organized by ISKO UK Meetup team members in collaboration with Dr. Amando Stellato. The workshops are intended for those considering to use or who have just started using VocBench. We hope to build a community of VocBench users within the ISKO. Read more ...

ISKO UK Conference 2021 cancelled

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 20:32:32 GMT

The ISKO UK Executive Committee has taken the very difficult decision to cancel the ISKO UK 2021 biennial conference due to the insufficient number of submissions.

The overall response was too low for us to have a viable event. We are sorry for the disappointment that this will cause. The biennial conference is normally a highlight of our events calendar. We are grateful for the support that we have had from colleagues and potential authors and we would encourage authors to consider submitting research papers to the ISKO journal Knowledge Organization.

Over the last year ISKO UK has organised a well-attended series of online Knowledge Organization Meetups and the KO-ED series of workshops in response to the Covid-19 lockdown. These will continue to run in 2021 along with the Knowledge Organization Research Observatory workshops starting on 31st March.

ISKO UK Conference 2021 Programme Committee

New series of ISKO UK events "Knowledge Organization Research Observatory"

Aida Slavic — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 11:48:25 GMT

ISKO UK starts a new series of regular monthly events devoted to knowledge organization research. The series entitled "Knowledge Organization Research Observatory" will take place online, and will include talks on research projects in the knowledge organization and related fields, in the UK and internationally. The first event in the series is scheduled for 31 March "AI in supporting fact checking, news verification and creative work".

ISKO UK Meetup 16 February 2021 - slides available to view

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 09:22:50 GMT

In this Meetup, Dr Tony Russell-Rose considered knowledge workers such as information professionals, legal researchers and librarians and their requirements to create and execute search strategies that are comprehensive, transparent, and reproducible.

Slides are available here

Obituary: Jean Aitchison

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 12:15:31 GMT

With sadness we report the death on 26 November 2020 of Jean Aitchison, one of the founding members of ISKO UK, who inspired at least two generations with her work on techniques of knowledge organization, particularly faceted classification and thesaurus construction. For more on her life and achievements, see the obituary .

ISKO UK Meetup 19 January 2021 - slides available to view

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 20:28:26 GMT

Email and MS Teams from an information architecture perspective

In this Meetup, James Lappin explored what strategies towards email will best enable information professionals to make a positive contribution to how messages are managed, protected and exploited as a knowledge resource.

Slides available here

ISKO UK Meetup 22 December 2020 - slides and video recording available to view

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 16:43:48 GMT

Interactive workshop: getting started with VocBench (step 1)

The slide deck, handouts and video file are available for viewing here.

ISKO UK Meetup 27 October - Slides ready to view

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 19:29:30 GMT

At this Meetup, Jennifer Parrucci, Senior Taxonomist at The New York Times, gave a peak into the newspaper's legacy of metadata use, how tags are assigned today and how this metadata powers products and internal services.

You can view slides here

Join Knowledge Organization London group at Meetup.com

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 21:26:44 GMT

ISKO UK Meetup* events are now organized through the Knowledge Organization group.

ISKO UK Meetup 22 September - Slides ready to view

Sun, 04 Oct 2020 16:47:27 GMT

In this September virtual ISKO UK Meetup, four speakers gave a demonstration of tools that help them building taxonomies, including:

PoolParty CardSorting software with Ian Piper - Slides
Thesaurus manager Similarity and Suggestions with Niké Brown
Graphcommons with Phil Stacey Slides
Qualitative data analysis computer software Nvivo 12 with David Haynes Slides

ISKO UK Meetup 19 August - Slides ready to view

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 13:30:43 GMT

Knowledge Graphs, Part II: Practical Applications

Once again, we were privileged to have Bob Kasenchak and Ahren Lehnert from Synaptica share their knowledge of Knowledge Graphs, this time, by going through a wealth of applications.

Thanks to Bob and Ahren for a very engaging presentation. Their slides can be viewed here

ISKO UK Meetup 14 July - Slides ready to view

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 19:26:27 GMT

Knowledge Graphs, Part I: Theories and Definitions

Bob Kasenchak and Ahren Lehnert from Synaptica led the first part of a discussion on knowledge graphs, including various approaches and definitions to what they are and how they are applied.

Bob's and Ahren's slides can be viewed here.

ISKO General Assembly held online on 7th of July 2020

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 09:28:22 GMT

The biennial General Assembly of ISKO International will be a virtual meeting held on Tuesday 7th of July 2020, 4 pm BST.

This year’s General Assembly will be the last under our old constitution before we transfer to the newly-incorporated non-profit organization in Canada. Currently ISKO is a German non-profit organization, which means that we are dependent on German-speaking members to handle all our formal registration and returns. Being incorporated in an English-speaking territory widens the scope for participation in the administration and oversight of the organization.

Members will be reviewing the new constitution and by-laws. Election to the Executive Board and appointment of the Board of Directors will take place by electronic poll in the week following the General Assembly.

ISKO UK Meetup 16 June - Slides ready to view

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 14:00:56 GMT

How the BBC is approaching metadata quality measurement

by Jeremy Tarling, Data Governance Specialist at the BBC

The BBC has been using content metadata to drive audience-facing experiences for the past eight years. Over this time we have evolved a mixture of human and machine content descriptions with varying levels of metadata quality. In this talk Jeremy gave some background to how content metadata has evolved at the BBC and how we are now planning to develop common metrics based on metadata completeness, accuracy and provenance.

You can view Jeremy's slides here

ISKO UK Meetup 19 May - Slides ready to view

Tue, 26 May 2020 12:43:51 GMT

This virtual Meetup was the first in the "Hidden World of Knowledge Organization" series in which we will be looking into situations and practices that can be understood and managed through the application of knowledge organization.

Slides presented by the speakers are available here

ISKO UK 21 April - presentation slides ready to view

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:51:02 GMT

The second KO Meetup of 2020 was a hand-on session on data visualization led by Tara McDarby. Pitched at newcomers, this event provided an introduction to the subject.

Using Python, Tara demonstrated how to use machine learning to produce data visualizations from textual data drawn from dataset held in the British Library Labs.

Presentation slides are available here

ISKO UK Student Award for 2020

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 15:13:26 GMT

ISKO UK is pleased to announce the launch of its 2020 research award for students who wish to engage in Knowledge Organization (KO) related studies and research. Financial support of up to £500 is available:

· to attend events that have a significant coverage of KO topics

· towards expenses incurred in the course of a research project or part of a project with a significant KO aspect

Find out details here

ISKO UK Meetup 18 February- Presentation slides ready to view

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 14:53:37 GMT

The Knowledge Organization Meetup has resumed its evenings with an interactive session: ‘Taxonomies/Thesauri/Ontologies – what’s best for me?’

Slides of Niké's presentation can be accessed here

Niké Brown, member of ISKO UK and taxonomist at Wiley and Sons, has kindly agreed to introduce the topic and moderate the discussion. Niké has over 20 years of publishing and information management experience.

We hope that participants have left the Meetup with a better understanding of the differences between these formats of controlled vocabulary which, in turn, will give them confidence to decide which format to adopt for their respective needs. This session was designed mainly for newcomers to the world of taxonomies, but all were welcome!

Tony Kent Strix Annual Memorial 2019 Lecture: report and recording of presentations

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:53:32 GMT

At the 2019 Tony Kent Strix Annual Memorial Lecture, the 2018 winner of the Tony Kent Strix Award, Professor Pia Borlund of the Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science at Oslo Metropolitan University, gave her lecture on the topic "Evaluation of information searching".

Dr Andrew Macfarlane, Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design, City, University of London, opened last year's event with a presentation "Sender vs Recipient Orientated Information Systems Revisited."

Read the report of the event and listen to the recording of talks under the relevant event listed in the section 'Past events'.

In memoriam - Professor Ila MacIlwaine

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 11:46:31 GMT

We were very sorry to hear of the death of Prof. Ia MacIlwaine, former President of ISKO and one of the founding members of the UK chapter. She was a mentor to several generations of library and information professionals and a respected academic. An obituary written by Prof. Vanda Broughton can be found on the UCL website

ISKO UK 2019 Conference - audio files are now available

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 15:18:46 GMT

Sixth ISKO UK Biennial Conference

The Human Position in an Artificial World

Creativity, ethics and AI in knowledge organization, 15th and 16th July 2019

In addition to view their slides, you are now invited to listen to the speakers themselves. You will find audio files in the conference programme

Join us at Taxonomy Boot Camp London, 15th and 16th October

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 18:29:32 GMT

Along with SLA and SLA Europe, ISKO UK is pleased to support the forthcoming Taxonomy Boot Camp in London 15th and 16th October 2019. See details the full agenda here

As in previous years, there will be an informal networking evening from 18.45 onwards at The Hand and Flower pub, 1 Hammersmith Road, London W14 8XJ (opposite Olympia).

All welcomeI

Conference report by the winner of the ISKO UK 2019 student grant

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 18:18:59 GMT

Sixth ISKO UK Biennial Conference, 15-16 July 2019

Conference report by Monique Archer, University of the West of

England, Bristol. Winner of the 2019 ISKO UK student grant.

Slides presented at the ISKO UK 2019 conference are now available for viewing

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 15:31:56 GMT

Sixth ISKO UK Biennial Conference

The Human Position in an Artificial World

Creativity, ethics and AI in knowledge organization, 15th and 16th July 2019

You are invited to view the slides presented by authors during the conference. You will find them in the conference programme

ISKO UK 2019 Conference - Poster Parade

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 09:40:17 GMT

There will be plenty of opportunities to view our posters at the ISKO UK 2019 Conference The Human Position in an Artificial World: creativity, ethics and AI in knowledge organization.

Just some of the titles on show:

BuildVoc: a Simple Knowledge Organisation System for IR
Artificial Intelligence in Information Retrieval: Forty Years on
Modelling Performing Arts Archives in South Korea Based on FRBRoo
Visualising Knowledge in Cultural Heritage

Join us on the 15th & 16th July at City, University of London

www.iskouk2019.org

#ISKOUK2019

What to expect on the second day (16th of July) of the 2019 ISKO UK conference

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 11:04:29 GMT

We have:

Dr Deborah Lee on Power, Truth and Creativity: the ethical dimensions of the knowledge organization of art
Vanda Broughton on The Respective Roles of Intellectual Creativity and Automation in Representing Diversity
and Rafael Cacciolari Dalessandro, José Augusto Guimarães, and D Grant Campbell on Fake News as an Emergent Knowledge Domain: perspectives for its subject categorization.

That's just on one morning!

Join us on the 15th and 16th July, at City, University of London where we are hosting the ISKO UK 2019

Conference www.iskouk2019.org #ISKOUK2019 "

Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Organization

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 12:26:26 GMT

The start of London Tech Week highlights the crucial role of high-tech industries for future economic development. This year’s preoccupation with AI has manifest itself in a good number of events already.

The information profession has been particularly concerned about the impact of AI on knowledge organization. At the ISKO UK 2019 biennial Conference, on the 15th and 16th July, 2019, Michael Upshall will be questioning the role of Taxonomies in the light of available AI tools. It will be interesting to see whether we need to do things differently or whether AI provides a way of improving current approaches to knowledge organization. Tony Russell-Rose will be exploring advanced searching using AI based approaches to search strategy formulation.

These are two of more than 30 papers and presentations at the conference: The Human Position in an Artificial World which will be held at City, University of London. The conference will start with Jem Rayfield, of Ontotext delivering his keynote speech on Monday, 15th, followed by a full day of papers and then commence again on Tuesday, 16th with Neil Maiden of Cass Business School as the keynote speaker. In the afternoon, there will be our panel discussion ' In an AI supported world, where do the opportunities lie for knowledge organization?' and the chance to view the poster contributions.

www.iskouk2019.org #ISKOUK2019

ISKO UK 2019 Conference - Keynote Speaker Jem Rayfield

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 19:57:01 GMT

On Monday 15th July, our Keynote Speaker, Jem Rayfield from Ontotext, will start the conference with his paper on AI & Semantic Web Solutions. Join us at the ISKO UK 2019 Conference, City, University of London #ISKOUK2019

Further details at www.iskouk2019.org

Taxonomy Boot Camp, Olympia, London: 15/16th October 2019

Mon, 13 May 2019 19:27:03 GMT

This is an advance notice of the forthcoming Taxonomy Boot Camp which, this year, will address the theme, Anything is Possible, while exploring the growing use of taxonomies to drive data, content, information processes and more.

Whether you're a complete taxonomy beginner, or already have a wide spectrum of experience and knowledge, you'll benefit from expert advice and how-tos, including:

Essential tips you can start applying right away to managing your taxonomy

New approaches to dealing with common issues like business buy-in, and governance
Latest taxonomy applications including NLP, semantics, and machine learning
How to make the most of cutting-edge technologies and industry-leading software

Further information at http://www.taxonomybootcamp.com/London/2019/Default.aspx

Student Grant to attend 2019 ISKO UK conference -15th and 16th July

Mon, 13 May 2019 18:45:07 GMT

ISKO UK wishes to give financial support to students with an interest in Knowledge Organization to encourage them to attend the ISKO UK 2019 conference on 15^th and 16^th July 2019. The grant covers the conference registration fee plus travel and accommodation for students based outside London.

ISKO UK 2019 conference ‘The Human Position in an Artificial World: creativity, ethics and AI in knowledge organization’ will take place at City, University of London on 15th and 16th July. The programme includes papers by leading academics and practitioners from around the world.

The Conference includes an innovative case study café alongside the formal presentations, posters and industry demonstrations. More information is available on our conference website www.iskouk2019.org

Applicants should be enrolled as postgraduate or undergraduate students on courses in any UK academic institution that covers some aspect of knowledge organization. This award is open to current students and to those who have graduated within one year of their application.

Please go to https://www.iskouk.org/Grants for more information on the support we can offer students.

ISKO UK Meetup - Change Management in the Library and Information Profession - slides uploaded

Mon, 13 May 2019 07:11:07 GMT

The slides used by Sharon Stewart, the speaker at the meetup on change management in the library and information profession have been uploaded in the section Past Events.

Metadata, taxonomies and retrieval - slides and audio recordings uploaded

Tue, 09 Apr 2019 19:37:38 GMT

Slides and audio recordings of the event on 'metadata, taxonomies and retrieval' (5th April 2019) are now available here

Programme preview for ISKO UK biennial conference

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 19:50:20 GMT

Excellent international showing in the ISKO UK 2019 provisional Conference Programme

ISKO UK 2019 conference ‘The Human Position in an Artificial World: creativity, ethics and AI in knowledge organization’ has an excellent array of leading national and international experts. The provisional programme has just been published and includes academics and practitioners from Denmark, Brazil, France, Canada, Singapore and China as well as the UK. Visit the dedicated conference website for further details: www.iskouk2019.org

Prof. Neil Maiden - keynote speaker at the ISKO UK 2019 conference

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 17:47:51 GMT

Prof. Neil Maiden from Cass Business School will be giving a keynote talk at the start of the second day of the ISKO UK 2019 conference on 16th July 2019.

Neil Maiden is Professor of Digital Creativity at the Cass Business School of City, University of London, and Director of its Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice. He has an extensive research background in computer science and software engineering. He now draws on this background to research and develop new forms of digital support for everyday creativity in work not normally framed as creative. He is co-founder of and teaches on the interdisciplinary Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership at City, University of London, as well as on the MBA programme at the Cass Business School. His details are available here

Changes in ISKO International governance

Sat, 08 Sep 2018 19:26:18 GMT

A sparkling rejuvenation of ISKO is well under way, thanks to the action-packed General Assembly during ISKO's Biennial Conference in Porto this July. Newly elected Executive Board members are:

President: Rick Szostak
Secretary/Treasurer: Athena Salaba
Vice-Presidents: Amos David and Andreas Ledl

David Haynes, Marcia Zeng and Renato Souza remain on the Board for another two years, while Jiri Pika and Matthew Kelly were elected as auditors.

Significantly for the Society as a whole, two key resolutions were approved:

In the course of 2019 the Executive Board should register ISKO as a not-for-profit corporation under the CNCA (Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act), with administrative seat in Toronto, Canada.

After taking into account points discussed and agreed during the 2018 General Assembly, the Board should file By-Laws broadly consistent with the draft presented at this assembly.

The full text of the new By-laws (and other constitutional documents) can be accessed by ISKO members via the Membership Management System . The CNCA is a modern statute that will allow ISKO to retain all its valued traditions while operating more efficiently and effectively than before. By moving our headquarters from Frankfurt to Toronto, we'll make it easier for Board Directors to do their job, whether or not they speak German. And as a non-profit company in Canada, we will escape liability for corporation tax.

The above resolutions represent the culmination of the Governance Review that was started in 2014 and led by Stella Dextre Clarke. In recognition of her hard work, the Assembly unanimously voted to award Stella honorary membership of the Society.

The constitutional changes now under way will take effect only after our next General Assembly, to be held in 2020 at the time of our next Biennial Conference. The University of Aalborg in Denmark, represented by ISKO-UK member Marianne Lykke, has generously offered to host the 2020 conference, and already we can begin to plan some celebrations there!