Government Knowledge Organization Systems: Valuing a Public Good

EDITOR'S SUMMARYKnowledge organization systems (KOS) for government information facilitate access, management and dissemination of information produced with government funding. Supported by taxpayers, the information product is a public good with potential impact on the economy, and ready access to it extends its value. Determining the economic value of KOS in the government setting is complicated by the idea of return on investment, given the drive for free and open public access and difficulty identifying a presumed economic benefit and beneficiaries. Intellectual property use and technology transfer based on government information fuel industries and economic markets, demonstrating the value of the information, while the systems for organizing that information promote easy access and rapid dissemination. KOS are critical tools that expand paths to government information, opening a broader range of topics for wider audiences, providing semantic resources to enrich information and promote discovery and machine readable metadata to support automated processes and interoperability.