Analyzing Birger Hjørland Views and Opinions on Knowledge Organization

To describe four epistemological positions of empiricism, rationalism, historicism, and pragmatism in knowledge organization domain and explaining and analyzing six approaches to knowledge organization (automatic versus human classification, user-based and cognitive classifications, facet classification, bibliometric classification and domain-analytic classification) based on Birger Hjørland’s theory.
Theoretical analysis.
Empiricist position results in classification according to formal similarities of resources. Rationalism led to systems with facet classification. Historicism driven systems deal with knowledge development and communities and systems holding practical approach take cultural background and critical classification. Hjørland’s theory analysis reveals the mutual relationship between automatic and human classification, compatibility among searcher and knowledge organization system, subject retrieval improvement, guiding specialized activities of the field, employing bibliography methods and so on.
Taking epistemological position in knowledge organization domain helps in analyzing issues of the field and provides theoretical basis for judgment.