F. Tim Knight was appointed Associate Librarian at the Osgoode Hall Law School Library in 2006. Prior to that he was the Cataloguing Team Leader at the Law Society of Ontario (formerly the Law Society of Upper Canada).

As Head of Technical Services he oversees library acquisition, cataloguing and electronic resources processing. He also oversees the ongoing  development and implementation of the Osgoode Digital Commons (ODC).

Tim has been actively involved with the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD) for many years and is the editor of the KF Classification Modified for Use in Canadian and Common Law Law Libraries (aka KF Modified) the classification scheme used at the Osgoode Law Library and in law libraries across Canada. He is also an occasional contributor to Slaw: Canada’s Online Legal Magazine.

Tim also represents CALL/ACBD on the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Indigenous Matters Committee (IMC). The IMC launched the First Nations, Métis, Inuit Indigenous Ontology (FMIIO) in June of 2019 and continues to respond to the recommendations in the CFLA Truth and Reconciliation Report and Recommendations (2017).

Research interests: metadata; classification; subject analysis; Indigenous worldviews; linked data; machine learning; music composition

Selected presentations:

“Worldviews, Term Circles, Linked Data”
Ontario Library Association Superconference, Toronto, Ontario, January 2020.

“Words and Worldviews: Decolonizing Description”
Canadian Association of Law Libraries, Edmonton, Alberta, May 2019.

“Osgoode Digital Commons: Digital Repository Success Stories”
Canadian Association of Law Libraries webinar, April 19, 2018.

“What About Classification Bias?: Channeling Sandy Berman”
Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians, Toronto, Ontario, May 2017.

“Linked Data and Canadian Legal Resources”
CanLII Law, Government and Open Data Conference and Hackathon, University of Ottawa, 2013

Selected publications:

See also: Librarian Publications and Presentations on ODC.

Articles

“Break On Through to the Other Side: The Library and Linked Data
TALL (Toronto Association of Law Libraries) Quarterly, v. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2011)

“Resource Description and Access: From AACR to RDA“,
Canadian Law Library Review, v. 36, no. 1 (2011)

“KF Modified and the Classification of Canadian Common Law“,
Canadian Law Library Review, v. 34, no. 5 (Winter 2009)

Book Reviews

Review. “Flawed Precedent: The St. Catherine’s Case and Aboriginal Title,”
Canadian Law Library Review, v. 45, no. 2 (2020).

Review. “Earth Jurisprudence: Private Property and the Environment,”
Canadian Law Library Review, v. 41, no. 1 (2016).

Review. “Visualizing Law in the Age of the Digital Baroque: Arabesques and Entanglements. By Richard K. Sherwin.,”
Canadian Law Library Review, v. 38, no. 3/4 (2013)

Review. “Who Owns the Moon?: Extraterrestrial Aspects of Land and Mineral Resources Ownership. By Virgiliu Pop.,”
Canadian Law Library Review, v. 37, no. 2 (2012)