Knowledge Base Publishing and the Lawi Project Publishing System

Knowledge Base Publishing is a system of managing business information through relational databases (collectively called a knowledge base). The knowledge base structure makes it easy for users to design a personal information toolkit without special programming. The toolkit includes features from print, Web, and database publishing formats, such as A – Z indexes with cross references, glossaries, hyperlinks and electronic forms, precision search functions, and private archives.

In a Knowledge Base Publishing system, information can include:

• articles and documents;
• business forms;
• notes and e-mail messages;
• images;
• annotations and book excerpts;
• information about people;
• transaction data (e.g. time sheets);
• organization schemes (taxonomies).

The knowledge base contains descriptive data (metadata) about the information. For quick retrieval, each knowledge base record is linked to the original document, form, or other information artifact, which can be stored anywhere — on the user’s computer, on a network drive, in a database, or in an external service.

Basic principles

Knowledge Base Publishing systems are based on the assumption that the greatest productivity gains will come from integrating the best features of print, Web, and database formats. For example, the need for A – Z indexes, thesauri, bibliographies, and card catalogs did not disappear just because most business information now resides in electronic form; they needed to be adapted for use with Web content. Moreover, the quality control processes of print publishing — e.g. editing, indexing, and peer review — must be adapted to electronic information to ensure that documents can be found by search engines, verified through links to sources, and re-used in other business contexts.

Knowledge Base Publishing is geared to individuals and work groups that want to work more efficiently, ensure the highest quality work product, and make an important contribution to their organization and profession. Knowledge Base Publishers:

• have the desire and skills to create their own information tools;

• create or adapt an organization scheme (taxonomy and thesaurus) that accurately describes their business environment and that references related concepts from other work groups;

• take responsibility for adding accurate metadata and links to source material in their publications;

• participate in the development of enterprise-wide standards and policies;

• use “open” technologies that make it possible to export and import, access data in other applications, and add custom functions.

The Lawi Project Publishing System

The Lawi Project Publishing System is used internally to manage its research, publishing, and administrative functions.

A – Z indexes are presented, in general, in a traditional back-of-the-book format, the Lawi Project Review index terms points to Web pages and articles on the Encyclopedia of Law Web site. The Index includes a subject hierarchy (table of contents), thesaurus for cross references, definitions for many terms, and listings for people and organizations.

Five kinds of metadata

The Lawi Project Publishing System Knowledge Base contains metadata for people, organizations, products, terms, thesaurus relationships, and documents. Contributors can populate the Lab via an import function or by direct queries in real time. We use these functions to reduce metadata creation and maintenance costs, improve the efficiency of our search engine, and increase the productivity of authors, editors, and researchers.

• Thesaurus data entry form for controlled vocabulary terms and thesaurus. Unlike most thesaurus management programs, users can associate documents, images, and other content objects with each term.
• A -Z index in tabbed format showing terms, cross references, and associated documents. Additional tabs show a list of subjects (topic hierarchy), lists of people and organizations, and search. Users can search by author, title, publication date, index term or category, and “facets” such as country or theme.
• Thesaurus data in search results. Results are returned and formatted for display. The Web part not only displays thesaurus relationships but also eliminates manual entry of some data.

The related articles are about how the Lawi Project developed and uses its Knowledge Base Publishing system, both for internal operations and as a teaching tool.