SIG CMR Classification and Metadata Research
What is SIG CMR?
SIG CMR is a special interest group in the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) focused on classification and metadata research. Because all of information science relies on metadata, our SIG is relevant to all ASIST members, and all are welcome to join us!
SIG CMR Student Membership Award, 2024-25
The special interest group for Classification and Metadata Research (SIG CMR) within the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) welcomes applications for Student Membership Awards, now through June 3, 2024.
The awards will afford masters and doctoral students in library and information science programs around the world a free one-year membership in ASIS&T, as well as membership in SIG CMR. The memberships will begin on July 1, 2024 and run for one year, and are only available to those who are new to ASIS&T. In exchange for membership, award winners will be asked to volunteer with SIG CMR. For example, recipients might be asked to judge submissions for SIG CMR’s awards, to serve on committees, or otherwise take on leadership roles in SIG CMR.
What does SIG CMR study?
SIG CMR studies the fundamental principles, underlying processes, and analytic constructs of classification schemes, metadata, and procedures by humans or automata.
Metadata can be seen as the constituent parts of classification schemes, going beyond classification to include information found in systems for identification, discovery, access, use, categorization, description, and management.
In this way, SIG CMR is concerned with the ethical and efficient organization of information writ large, and includes topics as diverse as access and retrieval, thesaurus construction, classification of information in any form, and testing and evaluating the effectiveness of these products. It is also concerned with the ability to develop abstractions from perceived reality.
Theoretical emphases include, but are not limited to: cognition, grouping and organization of groupings, and linguistics.
Metadata is all around us
SIG CMR acknowledges that none of the technologies that garner headlines today, including AI, data science, social media, and others, can exist without metadata.
Why is there a platypus on your website?
The platypus, or Ornithorhynchus anatinus, is a notoriously difficult animal to classify because it shares many properties with mammals but also lays eggs and has a duck-bill.
Because of these unique properties, the platypus is grouped with echidnas in the order of mammals known as monotremes. SIG CMR loves considering these difficult classification decisions and the processes used to make and reflect them.