b. July 4, 1928, St. Stephen, NB; d. Dec. 3, 2023, Toronto ON

Nancy Williamson BA graduate portrait. Credit Mount Allison yearbook 1949

Upon her retirement, two of Nancy Williamson’s long-time colleagues remarked on her prominent contributions to librarianship.

“She ‘officially’ retired June 30, 1994, from a stellar academic career at the then Faculty of Library and Information Science (FLIS), University of Toronto, Canada. After twenty-nine years of research and teaching, she left a behind a legion of successful graduates at both Master’s and Doctoral degree levels, as well as innumerable professional and academic colleagues within and beyond the University.” — Lynne C. Howarth

“Williamson is one of those individuals whose work on behalf of international bodies has enhanced the influence of the various organizations with which she has been associated.” — Clare Beghtol

1949 BA Mount Allison
1950 BLS University of Toronto
1954 MLS University of Toronto
1974 PhD Case Western Reserve University

1950–1956 Reference Librarian, Arts and Science, Hamilton Public Library
1956–1964 First Assistant, Cataloguing Dept., Hamilton Public Library
1964–1965 Head, Technical Services, Hamilton Public Library
1965–1977 Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
1977–1982 Associate Professor University of Toronto
1982–2005 Professor, University of Toronto
2005– Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto

Williamson, Nancy (1954). “Canadian music and composers since 1949.” Ontario Library Review 38 (2): 118–122.

Williamson, Nancy (1976). “ISBD problems and prospects.” Expression 1 (spring): 3–7. [Ontario Library Association]

Williamson, Nancy (1978). “Methodology in bibliography.” In The Society of Canada Colloquium III, National Library of Canada, Ottawa, 19–21 October 1978, pp. 28–42. Toronto: Coach House Press.

Williamson, Nancy (1978). “Education for acquisitions librarians: a state of the art review.” Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory 2 (3/4): 199–208.

Williamson, Nancy (1980). “An experiment in the application of William Goffman’s indirect method of information retrieval.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 1 (1): 3–21.

Williamson, Nancy (1981). “Viewdata systems: designing a database for effective user access.” Canadian Journal of Information Science 6: 1–14.

Williamson, Nancy (1982). “Cataloging and Classification Section: annual report, 1980–81” Library Resources & Technical Services 26 (1): 62–65.

Williamson, Nancy (1982). “Is there a catalog in your future: access to information in the year 2006.” Library Resources & Technical Services 26 (2): 122–135 (also published in Library Lit: The Best of 1982. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1983, pp. 113–128).

Williamson, Nancy (1982). “Subject cataloguing in Canada.” International Cataloguing 11 (July): 30–32.

Williamson, Nancy (1984). “Subject access in the online environment.” In Advances in Librarianship, vol. 13, pp. 49–97. New York: Academic Press.

Williamson, Nancy (1985). “Classification in online systems: research and North American perspectives.” International Cataloguing 14 (3): 29–31.

Williamson, Nancy (1986). “The Library of Congress Classification: problems and prospects in online retrieval.” International Cataloguing 15 (4): 45–48.

Williamson, Nancy (1987). “Education for positions in the subject control of information.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 7 (4): 57–67.

Williamson, Nancy (1988). “Bilingualism and Canadian libraries.” Urban Academic Librarian 6 (spring): 17–24.

Williamson, Nancy (1989). “The role of classification in online systems.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 10 (1/2): 95–104.

Williamson, Nancy (1990). “The Universal Decimal Classification: its future.” In The UDC: Essays for a new decade, pp. 29–32. London: Aslib.

Williamson, Nancy (1991). “The ISCCR Conference.” International Classification 18 (4): 229–232.

Williamson, Nancy and I.C. McIlwaine (1993). “Future revision of the UDC: progress report on a feasibility study for restructuring.” Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 15: 11–17.

Williamson, Nancy J, (1994). “Future revision of the UDC: progress report on a feasibility for restructuring.” Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 16: 19–25.

Williamson, Nancy, Joan Cherry, Carol Jones-Simmons, and Xin Gu (1994). “OPACS in twelve Canadian academic libraries: an evaluation of functional capabilities and interface features.” Information Technology and Libraries 13 (3): 174–195.

Williamson, Nancy (1994). “Subject analysis systems.” In Guide to Technical Services Resources, pp. 68–85. Chicago: American Library Association.

Williamson, Nancy (1995). “Restructuring of Class 61—medical sciences.” Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 17: 11–67.

Williamson, Nancy (1996). “Standards and rules for subject access.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 21 (3/4): 155–176.

Williamson, Nancy (1997). “A classification in the millennium.” CD ROM and Online Review 21 (5): 298–301.

Williamson, Nancy (1997). “The importance of subject analysis in library and information science education.” Technical Services Quarterly 15 (1/2): 67–87.

Williamson, Nancy (1997). “Subject analysis systems.” In New Directions in Technical Services Trends and Sources (1993–1995), pp. 86–118. Chicago: American Library Association.

Williamson, Nancy (2002). “Challenges in Knowledge Representation and Organization for the 21st Century: Integration of Knowledge Across Boundaries; Seventh ISKO International Conference, Granada, Spain, 10–13 July 2002.” Knowledge Organization 29 (2): 94–102.

Williamson, Nancy (2004). “Eighth International ISKO Conference. London, UK, 13–16 July 2004.” Knowledge Organization 31 (3): 188–195.

Williamson, Nancy (2005). “Classification issues: report of the IFLA General Conference, Classification and Indexing Section, Oslo, Norway.” Knowledge Organization 32 (4): 163–167.

Williamson, Nancy (2006). “Be-bop and hip-hop: more than 50 years in library and information science.” Originally presented at the annual meeting of CASLIS in May 2006. On the internet at Ex Libris website: http://www.exlibris.ca/occasional-papers/beebop-to-hiphop

Williamson, Nancy (2006). “Professor Neelameghan’s contribution to the advancement and development of classification in the context of knowledge organization.” In Knowledge organization, information systems and other essays: Professor A. Neelameghan festschrift, pp. 17–28. New Delhi: Ess Publications for the Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies, Chennai and Bangalore, India.

Williamson, Nancy (2006). “International Society for Knowledge Organization.” Knowledge Organization 33 (4): 221–230. [Ninth International ISKO Conference, Vienna, Austria]

Williamson, Nancy (2007). “Knowledge structures and the internet: progress and prospects.” Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 44 (3/4): 329–342.

Williamson, Nancy and I.C. McIlwaine (2008). “Medicine and the UDC: the process of restructuring Class 61.” Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30: 9–16.

Williamson, Nancy and I.C. McIlwaine (2009). “UDC medical sciences project: progress and problems.” Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 31: 33–36.

Williamson, Nancy (2009). “Classification Issues in 2007.” Knowledge Organization 36 (1): 66–74.

Williamson, Nancy (2010). “Classification Issues in 2008.” Knowledge Organization 37 (4): 318–331.

Williamson, Nancy (2010). “Clare Beghtol: Teacher, Researcher, and Theoretician.” Knowledge Organization 37 (2): 101–105.

Williamson, Nancy (2012). “Classification issues in 2011. Report: International UDC seminar 2011.” Knowledge Organization 39 (1): 55–59.

Williamson, Nancy (2013). “Paradigms and Conceptual Systems in Knowledge Organization, the 11th International ISKO Conference, Rome, 2010.” Knowledge Organization 40 (1): 64–75.

Williamson, Nancy (2015). “Knowledge Organization in the 21st Century: Between Historical Patterns and Future Prospects: the 13th International ISKO Conference, Krakow, Poland.” Knowledge Organization 42 (7): 522–536.

Williamson, Nancy (2015). “Categories, Contexts and Relations in Knowledge Organization: The 12th International ISKO Conference, Mysore, India. Knowledge Organization.” 42 (1): 51–56.

Williamson, Nancy (1973). “The present and future activities of the ALA/CLA/AECT/AMTEC/CAML Joint Advisory Committee on Nonbook Materials.” In Non-print media problems: Proceedings of a pre-conference workshop sponsored by the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries, held at Winnipeg, June 22–23, 1974, pp. 30–52. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association [CLA Occasional Paper no 83].

Williamson, Nancy and Phyllis Richmond (1975). “Three dimensional models in classification.” In Online systems for global networks: Proceedings of the 3rd International Study Conference on Classification Research, Bombay, India, 6–11 January 1975, pp. 188–203. The Hague: FID/CR; and Bangalore: Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, 1979.

Williamson, Nancy (1981). “The compilation of a bibliography: bibliographic representation and organization.” In Bibliography for Canadian Studies—Present Trends and Organization: Proceedings of a Conference held at Dalhousie University, Halifax N.S. on June 1 & 2, 1981, pp. 277–284. Willowdale, Ontario: The Association, 1982.

Williamson, Nancy (1989). “The Library of Congress Classification in the computer age.” In Classification theory in the computer age: conversations across the disciplines: Proceedings from the Conference, November 18–19, 1988, Albany, New York, pp. 58–64. Albany, NY: Rockefeller College Press.

Williamson, Nancy (1990). “The Library of Congress Classification: preparations for an online system.” In Tools for knowledge organization and the human interface: Proceedings of the 1st International ISKO Conference, Darmstadt, 14–17 August 1990, part 2, pp. 210–218. Frankfurt, Germany: Indeks Verlag, 1991.

Williamson, Nancy (1991). “Restructuring the UDC: problems and possibilities.” In Classification research for knowledge representation and organization: Proceedings of the 5th International Study Conference on Classification Research, Toronto, Canada, 1991, pp. 381–388. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1992.

Williamson, Nancy (1993). “The National Library of Canada: technology towards the 21st century.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on National Libraries: towards the 21st Century, April 20–24 1993, Taipei, pp. 721–736. Taipei, Taiwan: National Central Library, Republic of China, 1993.

Williamson, Nancy (1993). “Standards and standardization in subject analysis systems: current status and future directions.” In Subject indexing: principles and practices in the 90s: Proceedings of the IFLA Satellite Meeting held in Lisbon, Portugal, 17–18 August 1993, pp. 278–291. Munich: K.G. Saur, 1995.

Williamson, Nancy (1994). “The Universal Decimal Classification: research to determine the feasibility of restructuring UDC into a fully-faceted system.” In Proceedings of the 5th ASIS SIG/CR Classification Workshop, October 16, 1994, vol. 5, pp. 185–196. Medford, NJ: Information Today for the American Society for Information Science, 1996.

Williamson, Nancy (1995). “The development of a notational system for a restructured UDC.” In Proceedings of the 6th ASIS/CR Classification Research Workshop, October 8, 1995, Chicago, Illinois, pp. 227–235. Medford, NJ.: Information Today for the American Society for Information Science, 1998.

Williamson, Nancy (1997). “Knowledge structures and the internet: progress and prospects.” In Knowledge organization and information retrieval: Proceedings of the 6th International Study Conference on Classification Research held at University College London, 16–18 June 1997, pp. 23–27. The Hague: International Federation for Information and Documentation, 1997.

Williamson, Nancy (2000). “Thesauri in the digital age: stability and dynamism in their development and use.” In Dynamism and stability in knowledge organization: Proceedings of the 6th international ISKO Conference, 10–13 July 2000, Toronto, Canada, pp. 268–274. Wurzburg, Germany: Ergon Verlag, 2000.

Williamson, Nancy (1977). Cataloguing and bibliography: a comparative study of the interrelationships seen through their principles and practices. Cleveland, Ohio: Case Western Reserve University, PhD dissertation.

Williamson, Nancy (1980). An optimum structure for the Viewdata System to be used in the VISTA Project Field Trial: final report for Bell Canada. Toronto: n.p.

Williamson, Nancy and Michèle Hudon, eds. (1992). Classification Research for Knowledge Representation and Organization: Proceedings of the 5th International Study Conference on Classification Research, Toronto, Canada, June 24–28 1991. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Williamson, Nancy (1995). The Library of Congress Classification: a content analysis of the schedules in preparation for their conversion into machine-readable form (with the assistance of Suliang Feng and Tracy Tennant). Washington, DC: Cataloging Distribution System.

Williamson, Nancy, Clare Beghtol and Lynne Howarth, eds. (2000). Dynamism and stability in knowledge organization: Proceedings of the 6th International ISKO Conference, 10–13 July 2000. Toronto, Canada and Wurzburg, Germany: Ergon Verlag, 2000.

Williamson, Nancy and Clare Beghtol, eds. (2004). Knowledge Organization and Classification in International Information Retrieval. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information Press.

Williamson, Nancy (n.d.). Classification system and procedures for the book and pamphlet collect of the Parliamentary Group for World Government, United Kingdom.

WIlliamson, Nancy (n.d.). Development of a faceted classification system for medical sciences, based on the medical sciences in the Bliss Classification Medical sciences. [used in Amsterdam library]

Canadian Federation of University Women. Alice E. Wilson Fellowship, 1972
Beta Phi Mu, 1974
Howard V. Phalin World Book Graduate Scholarship in Librarianship in Library Science, 1974
Canada Council Doctoral Fellowship, 1974
Canadian Library Association, Canadian Association of College and University Libraries, Distinguished Academic Librarian Award, 1991
International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID). Testimony of Commendation, 1996
Honorary Member, International Society for Knowledge Organization, 2000
Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto Alumni Jubilee Award, 2008

Howarth, Lynne C. (2010). “Is there a catalog in your future: celebrating Nancy J. Williamson, scholar, educator, colleague, mentor.” Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 48 (1): 1–9.

Beghtol, Clare (2010). “Nancy J. Williamson and the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO).” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 48 (1): 26–35.