VocabControl

In Beyond retrieval: A proposal to expand the design space of classification, Melanie Feinberg argues that classifications are not just about efficient retrieval, but about mapping a conceptual space as an active part of problem-solving or design.

A classification highlights connections and contrasts, and fuzzy boundaries, so seems to me to be an obvious tool to help analysis. Comparing different classifications can also illustrate different aspects of an idea or domain. I am very used to the principle of building classifications, seeing how things fit, looking at the things that don’t fit, throwing the classification away, and starting again. You always learn a lot about the topic you are working with in the process.

There seem to be a lot of classifications in Human-Computer Interaction that are used as checklists (things like the DECIDE framework), rather than retrieval tools. It strikes me that library classifications are the special case, rather than “checklist classifications”, which are very common. But then that is just a question of how you classify classifications.

Sorting Things Out - Classification and its Consequences is a joy of a book, crammed with research and insights. It is very well written but is aimed at a serious academic audience, so pretty dense and packed with references. Bowker and Star examine in depth the development of the International Classification of Causes of Death, going back to 17th century archives and considering how something as apparently obvious and clearcut as death is in fact mired in political, religious, and economic biases. They go on to discuss the treatment of TB patients and the development of the Nursing Interventions Classification, again both of which would appear to be “objectively measurable” but are revealed to be complex intertwinings of various pressures. They then assess South Africa’s system of apartheid from the point of view of classification, showing how the arbitrary categorisation of people added to the brutality and cruelty of the regime. The book is not just a stark warning of how dominant regimes can use classification as a tool of oppression, but is also an important investigation of the powerplays involved in all categorisations.

Here’s a review of Essential Classification by Vanda Broughton, a core Library Studies textbook and very easy read. It’s a sound introduction to classification - very practical and really aimed at trainee librarians, but included enough background and theory to keep me interested, including some pointers to the biases in the big classification systems. I was also intrigued by the assertion that people find it easier to remember numbers, so numerical shelfmarks are generally more popular than those based on letters. I always thought it was easier to remember letters, because you can make them into little phrases, but perhaps that’s just me!

Simple Knowledge Organisation and the Semantic Web. This short paper is a concise introduction to SKOS and the Semantic Web, introducing the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

A bizarre classification game from the University of Montreal. There are some wonderfully inventive classifications that make mine look really unimaginative!

I went to the ISKO UK conference Ranganathan Revisited on Monday sponsored by Factiva, which was very interesting indeed. There were 5 presentations - two on classification theory, a fascinating insight into how Factiva sort and output the thousands of news reports they process every day, an introduction to a very interesting new meta-analysis energy portal for monitoring trends in reporting, and a demonstration of Aduna’s Autofocus software that gives a visual representation of searches. One of the interesting and perennial themes that came up in conversations was the difference in approach of computer scientists from people with an information and library skills background. Some people seem to think of this as a battleground, but I like to think the best ideas emerge at the confluence of different paths.