Documentologie

The course covers, on the basis of an "ex cathedra" presentation, numerous recent examples, of student interaction and guided exercises, the design (1) , management (2) and operation (3) of a documentation system for automation. This includes the study of documentary languages (a), the “documentary recording chain” including indexing methods (b) and information retrieval (c). An introduction to evaluating and improving data and documents quality will also be presented.

The approach is multi-disciplinary and addresses both users and designers of such systems.

A good mastery of "documentary languages" covers disciplines as varied as linguistics, logic, computer science, information quality analysis, epistemology and archiving, to name but a few examples.

The use of such systems is increasing and raises many strategic scientific, legal and financial issues within companies, institutions and research: law, medicine, transport, human sciences, applied sciences, etc.

The subject matter raises several challenges such as taking into account the meaning evolution of concepts and interpretations over time across cultures depending on the field being addressed, or an open-mindedness that allows a multidisciplinary field to be approached at the confluence of several subjects. The terminology of each of them will be explained during the course.

The course includes the evocation of key areas of research in this field.

At the end of this teaching unit, the student will master the conceptual and methodological knowledge for the creation and the management  of
a documentary system in a multidisciplinary context.

Courses requiring this course

Lectures complemented with discussions with the students, supervised exercises and reading of scientific papers; course taught in French

Contribution to the teaching profile

COMPREHENDING NEW KNOWLEDGE

• Applying methods and techniques acquired during the BA or a previous MA to another field of study by demonstrating intellectual openness

• Acquiring the methodological and practical knowledge necessary to design and manage an information system

DEEPENING SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE

• Understanding and mastering specialized concepts in the field of Information Science

BEHAVING PROFESSIONALLY

• Displaying analytical and synthetical thinking, contextualization skills, rigor and consistency

• Demonstrating critical thinking and autonomy

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

BADE D., "It's about Time!: Temporal Aspects of Metadata Management in the Work of Isabelle Boydens". In Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, volume 49, n° 4, 2011, pp. 328-338. (link to the paper)

BOYDENS I., Documentologie (STIC B 410). Bruxelles: Presses Universitaires de Bruxelles, 19th edition, 2023-2024/1, 192 pp. (syllabus).

BOYDENS I., HAMITI G. and VAN EECKHOUT R., Un service au cœur de la qualité des données. Présentation d’un prototype d’ATMS. In Le Courrier des statistiques, Paris, Insee, june 2021, n°6, pp. 100-122. PDF file Link to the Journal and to the article

BOYDENS I., "L'océan des données et le canal des normes". In CARRIEU-COSTA M.-J., BRYDEN A. et COUVEINHES P. éds, Les Annales des Mines, Série "Responsabilité et Environnement" (numéro thématique : "La normalisation : principes, histoire, évolutions et perspectives"), Paris, n° 67, july 2012, pp. 22-29.

BOYDENS I. et VAN HOOLAND S., "Hermeneutics applied to the quality of empirical databases". In Journal of documentation, volume 67, issue 2, 2011, pp. 279-289.

BOYDENS I., "Hiérarchie et anarchie : dépasser l'opposition entre organisation centralisée et distribuée ?" In HUDON M. et EL HADI W. M., éds, Cahiers du numérique (Numéro thématique « Organisation des connaissances et Web 2.0 »). Paris : Editions Hermès Sciences -Lavoisier, vol. 6, n° 3, 2010, pp. 77-101.

BOYDENS I., Informatique, normes et temps. Bruxelles: Editions Bruylant, 1999.

DALBIN S., YAKOVLEFF N. et ZYSMAN H., Livre Blanc. ISO 25964-I : Thésaurus pour la recherche documentaire. Paris : Afnor, 2013.

DEXTRE CLARKE S. et LEI ZENG M. "Standard Spotlight : From ISO 2788 to ISO 25964 : the evolution of thesaurus standards towards interoperability and data modeling". Information Standards Quarterly, 2012, vol. 24, n°1, p. 20-26.

GILCHRIST A., "Thesauri, taxonomies and ontologies – an etymological note". In Journal of Documentation, 2003, vol. 59, n°1, p. 7-18.

HUDON M., Guide pratique pour l'élaboration d'un thésaurus documentaire. Montréal : Editions Asted, 2009.

ISO 25964-1:2011. Information and documentation - Thesauri and interoperabilty with other vocabularies - Part I Thesauri for information retrieval. Geneva : ISO, 15-08- 2011. (review : http://blogresearch.smalsrech.be/?p=4091)

ISO 25964-2:2013. Information and documentation - Thesauri and interoperabilty with other vocabularies - Part II. interoperabilty with other vocabularies. Geneva : ISO, 15-03- 2013.

WISMANN H., Penser entre les langues. Paris : Albin Michel, 2014.

Course notes

• Syllabus
• Université virtuelle

Additional information

Professor Lecturer' Web Page : https://isabelle-boydens.web.ulb.be/

Contacts

UV : http://uv.ulb.ac.be

Teaching assistant : Guillaume Quintin email : Guillaume.Quintin@ulb.be

Professor Lecturer : Isabelle Boydens email : iboydens@ulb.ac.be

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Personal work
• written examination

Personal work

written examination

• Open question with short answer

The theoretical and practical parts of the course are assessed via a written exam lasting approximately three hours including open questions and exercises. A personal and original comment on the basis of a research article to be produced by each student may also be the subject of an evaluation to be submitted before the exam (theoretical part).

Important :  With regard to the use of generative artificial intelligence tools, the terms and conditions of this course follow those set out for dissertations and TPMs in the Master ‘dissertation guide’.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

Dristribution of the learning activities in the grading system : theoretical part (50%) - practical part (50%)

Language(s) of evaluation

• french