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Faceted classification and logical division in information retrieval

Library Trends, Wntr, 2004 by Jack Mills

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Appellate proceedings S9H I would not be followed in the A/Z index by

Appellate proceedings: Right of appeal S9H I because the latter will be found in the classified sequence, following S9H. If it is sought via the latter, it will be found there, at

S9H I Right of appeal in appellate proceedings Chain indexing is a highly economical method of constructing an A/Z index, since it does not duplicate work already done in the classified sequence. It is necessary to distinguish here the printed index from the classification schedule and the much fuller index that may be provided to the collection of a given library system or to a special bibliography or national bibliography. So, for example, although no entry will appear in the printed index to Class S in BC2 for

More Articles of Interest: Classification and categorization: a difference that makes a difference; Knowledge profiling: the basis for knowledge organization; Classification, rhetoric, and the classificatory horizon; Information and its philosophy; The epistemological foundations of knowledge representations

Appellate proceedings: Scots law SOB 9H a classified catalog to a law collection would include the entry if the library had literature on Scots law. The other major feature of chain indexing is that it automatically provides a coherent and predictable order of the terms qualifying the lead term. This order is the reverse of the hierarchy, e.g., in BC2, the entries generated for the specific subject

Old persons-Femur neck-Fracture-Rehabilitation in a medical index would be

Old persons HXW

Bones: Old persons HXWTKX

Femur: Old persons HXW TNP

Neck of femur: Old persons HXW TNP SR

Fracture: Neck of femur: Old persons HXW TNP SRN DL

Rehabilitation: Fracture: Neck of femur: Old persons HXW TNP SRN DLG TR

This order of terms in each entry may be compared with the order most likely to occur in the natural language statement of the subject as determined by the syntax of the language:

Rehabilitation [after] fracture [of the] neck [of the] femur bone [in] old people.

It is clear that the standard citation produces structures that closely parallel, in reverse order, those of the natural language.

Before leaving this example, it is worth noting that the rather daunting length that classmarks can reach reflects not on the order or notation of the classification but on the specificity it aims at in subject description. Even relatively broad classifications like DC and LC occasionally reach the length of classmark shown above, but for less specific subjects.

12. CLASSIFICATION AND ALPHABETICAL SUBJECT CATALOGS

This term is used here to stand for any index to the information content that is alphabetically arranged and is independent of any classified arrangement. This raises the twofold difficulty that catalog searchers have to recognize: Just what are the concepts involved in the subject they seek, and how can they cope with the vagaries of the natural language when phrasing that need for searching? While its basic principle is to give the user known names in a known order (to use Metcalfe's phrase) every practicing librarian knows that this is only the second step. The first requirement is for users to know just where they want to get to; for this they need a map of the subject terrain, showing exactly where the numerous sideroads branching off the main highway lead to.

Faceted classification and logical division in information retrieval

Library Trends, Wntr, 2004 by Jack Mills

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