About the centre

Knowledge organisation (KO) is a vital aspect of understanding and working with information.  It is the study and analysis of how information is categorised, ordered and labelled, with a strong theoretical and ethical dimension.  Knowledge organisation covers a wide range of disciplines and approaches, and the boundaries of knowledge organisation research are much debated.  While traditionally a sub-discipline of information studies, especially library and information studies, other disciplines such as English, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, Early Modern studies, also research the classification, categorisation and organisation of knowledge. 

UCL’s centre for knowledge organisation research, founded by members of UCL’s Department of Information Studies in September 2025, emerges from a strong institutional history in classification theory.  The department’s alumni include R.S. Ranganathan, perhaps the most famous classification theorist of the 20th century.  Members of the Department of Information Studies also played a pivotal role in the Classification Research Group, which were a vital part of the development of international knowledge organisation theories in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond – see History of knowledge organisation at UCL for more information about the history of knowledge organisation.  CeKOR members’ research covers a multitude of approaches and methodologies within knowledge organisation.  These include art/music/cultural heritage knowledge organisation, ontologies, critical analysis of knowledge organisation systems, application of literary theories to knowledge organisation, AI and LLMs in systems for classification, faceted classification theory, knowledge organisation in historical documents, the history of knowledge organisation, and more.

Therefore, this research centre’s focus is on bringing together researchers who think about the organisation of knowledge, both within information studies and in other disciplines, and to generate more research – and more awareness – about knowledge organisation both nationally and internationally.