1. Introduction: Ontology emerged from the
philosophical field as an area of study introduced by Aristotle and has been
applied in many different ways. Philosophical ontology is describing the real
world as it exists, while computational ontology is describing the world as it
should be. In information science, ontology is a formal naming and definition
of the types, properties, and interrelationships of the entities that really or
fundamentally exist for a particular domain of discourse. The ontology is used
to define the concepts, relationships and other distinctions that are relevant
for modeling a domain. It is a representation of a set of concepts within a
domain and the relationships between those concepts. In other words, ontology
defines the vocabulary of a domain.
2. Definition: Ontology is a well-defined set
of concepts that are ordered in some manner to create an agreed-upon vocabulary
for exchanging information. In information science, ontology formally
represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the
relationships between pairs of concepts.
In the context
of knowledge management, ontology is referred as the shared understanding of
some domains, which is often conceived as a set of entities, relations, axioms,
facts and instances
Ontology is organized using a
hierarchy and a set of relationships between its classes.
Artificial
Intelligence (AI) community defined ontology in 1991 as “Ontology defines the
basic terms and relations comprising the vocabulary of a topic area as well as
the rules for combining terms and relations to define extensions to the
vocabulary.”
In 1993 Gruber
defined ontology as: “Formal explicit specification of shared
conceptualization. The definition can be explained as follows:
a) Formal: Ontology should be machine readable and processed
by an Artificial Intelligent (AI) system. We do not need there to be
communication devices between people and people even people and machine.
Ontology should be formally defined using a formal language
b) Specification: Means writing specifications of
language syntax to satisfy certain criteria such as precision, non-unambiguity,
consistency, completeness and implementation as independent statements; it
should provide a communication device to enable users to share knowledge in
consensual mode.
c) Shared: Means ontology represents a consensual knowledge
that has been arranged and agreed on by groups typically as the result of a
social network rather than an individual’s view.
d) Conceptualisation: This is an abstract model of
domain knowledge driven by application for users, and represents ways in which
it is committed by knowledge- based systems.
In practical
terms, ontology is the set of terms of a vocabulary about a given domain and
all the relationships between these terms. Ontology uses grammar to employ
the vocabulary terms to express something meaningful within a specified domain
of interest. Ontology should be formally defined to process by machine. However,
ontology is not software and it cannot run as a program, but it can be used by
programs.
3. Ontology Library System: An Ontology library system is a
library system that offers various functions for managing, adapting and
standardizing groups of ontologies. Ontology library systems are an important tool in grouping and
re-organizing ontologies for further re-use integration, maintenance, mapping
and versioning. An ontology library system will, at the very least, feature a
functional infrastructure to store and maintain ontologies, an uncomplicated
adapting environment for editing, searching and reasoning ontologies and strong
standardization support by providing upper-level ontologies and standard
ontology representation languages.
Typical
information representation systems can be categorized into three general
categories:
a) Term Lists: Term lists emphasize lists of
terms usually presented with definitions. It includes Controlled Vocabulary,
Authority Files, Glossaries, Dictionaries, Gazetteers, etc.
b) Classifications and Categories:
Classifications and categories emphasize the creation of subject sets. It
includes Subject Headings, Classification Schemes, Taxonomies, Categorization
Schemes, etc.
c) Relationship Lists: Relationship lists emphasize on
the connection between terms and concepts. It includes Thesauri, Semantic
Networks, Ontologies, etc.
Ontology
library system can possess following characteristics:
a) Management: This function is the most
important function of an ontology library system which facilitates the re-use
of knowledge (ontologies).
b) Adaptation: Ontology library systems should
facilitate the task of extending and updating ontologies. They should provide
user-friendly environments for searching, editing and reasoning ontologies.
Important aspects in an ontology library system include support in finding and
modifying existing ontologies.
c) Standardization: Ontology library systems should
follow existing or available standards, such as standardized ontology
representation languages and standardized taxonomies or structures of
ontologies.
4. Examples of Ontological Library System: In the
following, a few examples of Ontolocial library systems are given
a) IEEE Standard Upper Ontology (IEEE): IEEE Standard
Upper Ontology (IEEE) is developed by
IEEE Standard Upper Ontology (SUO) Working Group, who took a tremendous effort
to create a standard top-level ontology to enable various applications, such as
data interoperability, information search and retrieval, automated inferencing
and natural language processing.
b) DAML Ontology Library System: DAML Ontology library system is the part of
DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) Program, which officially started in August
2000. The goal of the DAML effort is to develop a language and tools to
facilitate the concept of the Semantic Web.
5. Application of Ontology: The fields of artificial
intelligence, the Semantic Web, systems engineering, software engineering,
biomedical informatics, library science, enterprise bookmarking, and
information architecture all create ontologies to limit complexity and to organize
information. Ontologies are used for representing knowledge on the whole of a specific domain or on
of it. Some applications of ontologies are
a) Information Exchange: Lack of standardization and
common vocabulary over the web has continued to generate heterogeneity, which
strongly hinders information exchange and communication. Ontology will help
people to find relevant information more efficiently and more effectively, give
better access to that information, and aid the sharing of knowledge within the
user community of a digital library.
b) Used in Software to Retrieve Relevant Information: Ontologies are included in software architectures as a way of
facilitating the search for relevant information.
c) Model a domain: Ontologies can be used to model
a domain and support reasoning about concepts.
6. Conclusion: Ontology is a set of classes,
relations, functions, etc. that represents knowledge of a particular domain.
Ontologies provide a formal frame to represent the knowledge related with a
complex domain, as a qualitative model of the system. Ontology describes
concepts, terms and relations in a specific domain to create communication
richness and provides a clear description to these concepts which are related
to the domain knowledge. Ontologies can be used to represent the structure of a
domain by means of defining concepts and properties that relate them.
How to Cite this
Article?
APA Citation, 7th Ed.: Barman, B. (2020). A comprehensive book on Library and Information Science. New
Publications.
Chicago 16th Ed.: Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. Guwahati:
New Publications, 2020.
MLA Citation 8th Ed: Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. New
Publications, 2020.

No comments:
Post a Comment