Topic maps is a fairly new ISO certified standard (ISO 13250, 2002) for organising digital
content. Its main implementation area has been the World Wide Web where it is used for
structuring subject portals and similar document types. However, in theory a topic map can be used to model any real world-relationship, and the objects in the relationships do not have to be digitised.

The title of the paper signifies two things:
1. That the topic map standard is developed for facilitating knowledge organisation
2. That the topic map standard is developed by computer scientist rather than library and information scientists

I will start by giving a brief introduction to topic maps with examples showing how to create topics and relationships. Then I will discuss its usability in knowledge organisation of web resources. In the third part I will focus on some important challenges to successful implementation of topic maps. At the end of the paper I have added a tail suggesting how topic maps could be used to add value to bibliographic records.