Outline for Week “our” 5

1. Reminders: Read and re-read, click/explore, ask questions

2. Handouts: Vocabulary issues + term list, etc.
3. Readings – volunteers and office hours [link]:
• Movie – please view film: PAUL OTLET | O homem que queria
classificar o mundo | The Man Who Wanted to Classify the World
(PLEASE view the first 22-25 minutes. The film is available under
course reserves)
4. Aboutness continues ~ Pomerantz video!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHm9SysZynM
5. Classification lecture
6. Assignment 3 - lab
7. Semantic Web/linked data/RDF (we’ll beging…)
 Vocabularies-ontology
 SKOS encoding
 LAB exercises…or for next week
 Pomerantz video!
Pomerantz video!!
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=jHm9SysZynM
Classification
Grouping of like
objects (entities, Classification concepts
documents, • Category
products) • Concepts
Aboutness (Pomerantz):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHm9
SysZynM
a must listen to if you haven’t Different academic
• Collocation emphases
• Information
Classification Systems science/computer
• Scheme/s (terms or science/cognitive
notation) psychology
• Taxonomy
• Ontology
•
Classification History
Aristotle (384-322 BCE) “father of classification”
- Category - Greek kategoría, accusation, attribution)
- Classical or definitional theory of concepts/ pure form
• Objects belong to classes based on a set of necessary
and sufficient features
• All birds have wings and beaks (but, platypus is
part bird, mammal and reptile...)
• Homosapiens walk in an upright position, and have
two legs, two arms, two eyes, a brain, and are able to
talk and reason
Classical Theory – classification mirrored the actual
world / Unchallenged until mid-19th c.
 Callimachus’ Classification
10 πινάκης (pinakes)
Poet, critic, and scholar of the Library of Alexandria,
created a bibliography (pinakes) of works in the library
• Epic, and other non- • Oratory
dramatic poetry • Medicine
• Drama • Mathematical science
• Law • Natural Science
• Philosophy • Miscellanea
• History (3rd c. BC)
Linnaean taxonomy
Cracks in Classical Theory
Major break in classical theory
 Human Categorization
R.M.W. Dixon’s work (1982) , Dyirbal (indigenous
Australians).
(Nouns classified by a modifier)
 Bayi - males, animals,
 balan - females, water, fire, fighting
 balam - nonflesh food
 bala - everything else.
Lakoff, George (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.

Also, know of Hope Olsen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_A._Olson
Langridge, W. (1992). Classification--its Kinds, Elements,
Systems, and Applications. KG Saur Verlag Gmbh &
Company.

• Purpose • Same object may be

• Facilitates everyday life classified in many ways
• Choice of classification • No absolute
is always related to classification
purpose • Classifications are made
• Natural vs. Artificial not discovered
classification
• What is the difference?
• Situational classification
 Classification
Used a multitude of places and
environments:
 Supermarkets
 Knowledge bases of expert systems
 Institutional archives & repositories
 Digital & physical libraries (collocation
and stack arrangement)
 Web pages -- design of menus for
interactive searching
 Etc…
My backyard
this weekend!
 Classification Schemes: coverage and “vocabulary”
1. Schedule, the system…
 the classification schema

1. LCC overview: https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcc.html; outline:

https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/
2. DDC overview and summaries:
https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/dewey/ddc23-summaries.pdf
• Surprise: Dewey rap
3. NLM: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/class/; specifically, the outline of the
classification: https://classification.nlm.nih.gov/outline
4. International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical
Modification (ICD-11-CM)
https://icd.who.int/browse/2024-01/mms/en
5. Patent classification systems:
https://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/patent-search/classif
ication-standards-and-development
 Classification Schemes: coverage and “vocabulary”

2. Coverage / domain
 general (e.g. DDC) or subject specific (e.g. ACM)
3. Language
 vocabulary: multilingual or individual (e.g. UDC)
 notation: pure or mixed
4. Geography
 Global
 National  to  International
 Local (in-house, project/business specific) (e.g., Bruger’s
Bagels, a stores Wine Classification)
5. Auxiliary aids (separate or within)
 Index (like back of the book index)
 Synopsis
 Tables, independent or within “schedule”
 Structure of Classification Schemes
Structure
 Enumerative (a list)
 Hierarchical (structured from general to
specific)
 Faceted (parts, exclusive groups)
 History
 Art history

Enumerative 

Medieval history
Roman history
 Scientific history
HA Statistics Enumeration is
https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/
everywhere!
 Hierarchical
Super-ordinate and sub-
ordinate
Genus/species
Class/member
More flexible application in
classification systems than
in terminological tools
(thesauri, ontologies, etc.)
 Hierarchical example w/BEER
BEER
Ale
Bitter
Brown Ale
India Pale Ale
Mild
Pale Ale
Lager
Pilsner
Porter
Stout
Sweet Stout
Dry Stout
Imperial Stout
 Faceted
“One side of a many sided body” (OED)
Think of a diamond
Faceted classification works on an “analytico-
synthetic principle”
 System: Fundamental concepts are analyzed
and grouped together into facets
 Concepts are combined or “synthesized” as
necessary to form more complex subjects
 Facet example in Hunter

Capacity Container Beer type

facet facet facet
330 ml Cans Mild
440 ml Bottles Bitter
550 ml Larger
1 litre Stout
3 ½ litre
 Facet example in Hunter

Capacity Container Beer type

facet facet facet
1 330 ml 1 Cans 1 Mild
2 440 ml 2 Bottles 2 Bitter
3 550 ml 3 Larger
4 1 litre 4 Stout
5 3 ½ litre
 Classification Advantages
Context, grouping
Overview of the scope of a service
Browsing, serendipity
 Broadening and narrowing a search (hierarchy
subject tree)
 Browsing a directory-type structure is user
friendly
 Look for related items not previously identified
as relevant - serendipity
Partitioning / Segmenting (facets)
 Classification Advantages continued
Agreed classification schemes
 Promote interoperability
 Permanence (a sense of)
Multilingual access
 Same notation across information systems
Known by users
Available in machine readable form
 Classification Criticisms
Logical division, although related materials
are separated
Illogical division of classes
Difficulties and delay in adding new topics