I’m cleaning up my loft, and came across a book from my undergrad days: “The Organization of Information” by Arlene G. Taylor. This was probably one of my first glimpses into KM, from a bibliographic perspective. Since I was in a program in the School of Library Sciences (now the School of Communications and Information), the book focuses on the need to organize info so that it can be retrieved at a later date for posterity’s sake.

With that background in mind, here are Ronald Hagler’s six functions of bibliographic control:

1. Identifying the existence of all types of information-bearing entities as they are made available
2. Identifying the works contained within those information-bearing entities
3. Systematically pulling together these information-bearing entities into collections in libraries, archives, museums, Internet communication files, and other such depositories
4. Producing lists of these information-bearing entities prepared according to standard rules for citation
5. Providing name, title, subject, and other useful access to these information-bearing entities
6. Providing the means of locating each information-bearing entity or a copy of it

I started this post thinking maybe those rules need to be updated – but now I’m not so sure they do. I find it frustrating that my own blog is lifted and reproduced (with massive linkspam) by all sorts of characters. When I look for information, I find the same thing – its hard to find relevant valid information.

What do you think? How can we improve upon these bibliographic rules?