São Paulo, 19 August 2026
At the close of the 19th International Conference of the International Society for Knowledge Organization, held in São Paulo, Professor Lu An formally assumed the office of President of ISKO, succeeding Professor Thiago Henrique Bragato Barros, who led the Society from 2022 to 2026. Elected President-elect in 2024, she takes office at the conclusion of the conference in accordance with the Society's practice of transferring the presidency at its biennial international meeting.
In her closing address to delegates, the incoming President thanked the organizing committee, reviewers, volunteers, participants, and supporting institutions, and reflected on the discussions held under the conference theme, "Transforming Knowledge Organization: Critical Approaches to Epistemological, Technological, and Cultural Change."
Those discussions, she noted, addressed the epistemological challenges facing knowledge organization systems under the advance of artificial intelligence, the ways in which classification systems, ontologies, and metadata are embedded in social, historical, and technological processes, and the emerging paradigms of the field in the era of generative AI and semantic intelligence. Across these debates one conclusion recurred: knowledge organization is not a neutral technical activity, but an undertaking that carries epistemological positions, cultural diversity, and ethical commitments.
Speaking from her own research in knowledge organization and online information analysis, the President observed that in uncertain environments the ordering of information bears directly on the efficiency of decision-making and on social resilience. Where informational disorder and emotional contagion on social media challenge governance, she argued, knowledge organization theory supplies methodological tools for identifying hidden nodes in information dissemination and for constructing ordered knowledge systems.
The President set out four priorities for her term.
Interdisciplinary integration. Since its founding in 1989, ISKO has brought together scholars from more than twenty countries across information science, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and medical informatics. The Society will work to lower remaining disciplinary barriers and to engage emerging fields such as cognitive science and artificial intelligence.
Ethics and social responsibility. In the era of big data and artificial intelligence, the design and application of knowledge organization systems raise substantive questions of fairness, inclusiveness, and cultural diversity. ISKO has a responsibility to lead scholarly debate on them.
Dialogue across countries and regions. The Society will strengthen its support for knowledge organization research in a wider range of national and regional contexts, and promote dialogue among diverse knowledge systems on equal terms.
Research connected to practice. Whether the setting is technological innovation, smart city development, or information governance, knowledge organization theory should move from the academic hall into the social scene.
Closing her remarks, the President described ISKO as more than a scholarly association: an intellectual community that crosses borders, languages, and cultures, held together by the conviction that organized knowledge is the cornerstone of how humanity understands the world and confronts its challenges. She invited members to join in building ISKO into a think tank and a core force within the global knowledge infrastructure.
The Society records its appreciation to Professor Thiago Henrique Bragato Barros for his service as President from 2022 to 2026, and welcomes President Lu An to office.
Two alternative pull quotes, should the editorial team prefer a forward-looking line: "Knowledge organization theory should move from the academic hall into the social scene," or "ISKO is not only a scholarly association. It is an intellectual community that crosses borders, languages, and cultures."
The International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO) is pleased to announce the recipients of the Best Paper Award at the ISKO Conference 2026. Recognising outstanding scholarly contributions to the field, the award this year distinguishes three papers, each honoured within one of the conference's core dimensions: the epistemological, the applied, and the cultural.
The awarded papers reflect the breadth of contemporary research in knowledge organization, spanning artificial intelligence and archival ethics, the representation of medical knowledge, and the critical examination of classification systems.
"Transforming AI Transparency in Archival Contexts: Paradata as an Ethical Foundation for Knowledge Organization"
Author: Moises Rockembach (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
This paper addresses the ethical foundations of knowledge organization in archival settings, positioning paradata as a means of advancing transparency in the application of artificial intelligence.
"Integrating Plural Epistemologies in Representation and Organization of Medical Knowledge: Insights from the Allergy Domain"
Authors: Marcin Trzmielewski (University of Montpellier Paul-Valéry, France) and Davide Caimmi (Montpellier University Hospital, France)
Drawing on the allergy domain, this contribution examines how plural epistemologies can be integrated into the representation and organization of medical knowledge.
"Ethno-Racial Subjects in Classification Systems: A Comparative Survey"
Authors: Nina Gomes Sobral Barcellos D'Almeida (Fluminense Federal University, Brazil), Claudio Gnoli (University of Pavia, Italy), Linair Maria Campos (Fluminense Federal University, Brazil) and Carlo Bianchini (University of Pavia, Italy)
This comparative survey investigates the treatment of ethno-racial subjects across classification systems, offering a critical perspective on representation in knowledge organization structures.
ISKO extends its congratulations to all awarded authors and its appreciation to the members of the scientific committee and the community whose engagement sustains the standard of research celebrated by this award. The three distinguished papers exemplify the intellectual diversity and rigour that continue to define the field of knowledge organization.
International Society for Knowledge Organization is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization. Ontario, Toronto, Canada
© ISKO 2004-2026 : last updated 2026.30.01
