Moule 6: Classification. Exercise 21

Module 6 - Classification - Exercise 21

1.            Facet - constituent part of a subject and as a single concept.  Facets are the characteristics that are created when a subject is broken down into smaller aspects, for example, the subject wine is broken down into facets such as colour.

2.            Literary warrant - controlled vocabularies (including classification schemes) should accommodate only those documents which already exist, not subjects that theoretically could exist.

3.            Unlike a special classification scheme, general schemes attempt to cover the whole of documented knowledge.

4.      Explanation of a classification scheme:

        a)   Schedules - part of a classification scheme that list concepts in order.   

        b)   Notation - set of symbols used to represent the arrangement of the scheme.  

        c)  Hospitality - ability of a notation to accommodate new concepts or subjects, through insertion into the existing notation.

5.          Enumerative classification scheme - lists or enumerates subjects, only loosely grouping together related subjects or aspects of a subject. EG: Library of Congress (general scheme)

        Faceted schemes - subjects are broken down into single concepts (the facets), each facet is assigned a notation, and facets are combined or synthesised in order to construct notation that will represent complex subjects.  EG: Ranganathan’s Colon Classification illustrates faceted features.

6.            Citation order - the order in which different elements of something are cited.  In cataloguing, it's the order in which bibliographic elements are cited and in faceted classification it refers to the order in which the facets are combined.

7.             The two distinct purposes of classification schemes discussed by Harvey and Hider are:

·       to provide a physical location for documents

·       to provide access to documents by subject.

8.             The main criticisms of DDC according to Harvey and Hider are:

·       social and cultural bias;

·       crowding of some schedules (e.g., technology);

·       decimal base of ten limits hospitality;

·       insufficient specificity, e.g., in highly technical fields; and

·       notation can be long.