Page 217 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes of algebraic languages. These taxonomies are the product of rational, and often pragmatic and
functionalist, worldviews.
Of particular significance in determining how knowledge is represented in classification schemes
are:
Main classes: Classification theorists have attempted to ‘discipline epistemology’ in the sense of
imposing main class structures with the view to simplifying access to knowledge in documents
for library users. This practice establishes the epistemological worldview upon which the
classification scheme is built, a practice which is ideological and dominating, and at the same
time liberates the user through facilitating ‘open access’ libraries which enable the user to locate
specific documents held by the library. This is a nice example of the dominating and enabling
power of a very localized knowledge/power regime.
Notational language: A number of classification theorists were particularly interested in the
establishment of symbolic languages through notation. This view of language is extremely
idealist and seems to view what Ranganathan called ‘natural language’, that is socialized language
developed in and through communities of speakers, as unscientific and imprecise.

Notes Although in his canons of classification, he asserts that the order of classes in a
classification scheme is built on a theory of knowledge, Berwick-Sayers argued, following
on from Edward Edwards, that there are two ‘classes’ of library classifications: those
which have a metaphysical basis and those which are ‘merely practical and convenient
arrangements, made without reference to any ideal order of knowledge. In the former
category he places Dewey’s Decimal Classification.

Knowledge organisation systems are first and foremost concerned with surrogates, in the case
of library classification schemes, of symbolic notation standing in place of ‘subject terms’
representing ‘concepts’. For Berwick Sayers, despite the lack of brevity in the notation of the
Decimal Classification system, the reason for its longevity and world-wide use is its notation,
which being based on Arabic numerals, is an international language understood by all nations’.
Other classification theorists developed highly complex articulated symbolic ‘languages’ which
mimicked ‘natural languages’ in employing syntagmatic devices to translate ‘natural language’
into symbolic notation.

Classification experts and librarians have long recognized the potential of library classification
schemes for improving subject access to information. In a 1983 article, Svenonius describes
several uses for classification in online retrieval systems, including the following: (1) to improve
precision or recall, (2) to provide context for search terms, (3) to enable browsing, and (4) to
serve as a mechanism for switching between languages. In the Dewey Decimal Classification
(DDC) Online Project (Markey and Demeyer 1986), Markey demonstrated the first implementation
of a library classification scheme for end-user subject access, browsing, and display. Although
many online catalogues provide call number browsing, few employ classification in the manner
described by Svenonius or explored by Markey in her innovative use of the DDC in an
experimental online catalogue which enabled users to search and browse online classification
data. Only recently, some ten years after Markey’s pioneering research, it is online classification
data once again being seriously viewed as a tool for providing advanced browsing and retrieval
capabilities in online systems.
Otlet was particularly interested in capturing the essential meaning of documents and in the
relationships between documents. He was of the view that people do not have enough time to
read through the huge proliferation of information in documents, and that they could be helped
in the business of scholarly linking by the construction of a massive bibliography consisting of

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