Concepts and Terms in the Faceted Classification: the Case of UDC.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Concepts and Terms in the Faceted Classification: the Case of UDC.
Authors:	Broughton, Vanda¹ v.broughton@ucl.ac.uk
Source:	Knowledge Organization. 2010, Vol. 37 Issue 4, p270-279. 10p. 9 Diagrams, 1 Chart.
Subjects:	Universal decimal classification, Faceted classification, Bibliographic classification, Taxonomy, Hierarchical relationships (Indexing), Semantic networks (Information theory), Knowledge management research
Abstract:	Recent revision of UDC classes has aimed at implementing a more faceted approach. Many compound classes have been removed from the main tables, and more radical revisions of classes (particularly those for Medicine and Religion) have introduced a rigorous analysis, a clearer sense of citation order, and building of compound classes according to a more logical system syntax. The faceted approach provides a means of formalizing the relationships in the classification and making them explicit for machine recognition. In the Bliss Bibliographic Classification (BC2) (which has been a source for both UDC classes mentioned above), terminologies are encoded for automatic generation of hierarchical and associative relationships. Nevertheless, difficulties are encountered in vocabulary control, and a similar phenomenon is observed in UDC. Current work has revealed differences in the vocabulary of humanities and science, notably the way in which terms in the humanities should be handled when these are semantically complex. Achieving a balance between rigour in the structure of the classification and the complexity of natural language expression remains partially unresolved at present, but provides a fertile field for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Engineering Source

Description
Abstract:	Recent revision of UDC classes has aimed at implementing a more faceted approach. Many compound classes have been removed from the main tables, and more radical revisions of classes (particularly those for Medicine and Religion) have introduced a rigorous analysis, a clearer sense of citation order, and building of compound classes according to a more logical system syntax. The faceted approach provides a means of formalizing the relationships in the classification and making them explicit for machine recognition. In the Bliss Bibliographic Classification (BC2) (which has been a source for both UDC classes mentioned above), terminologies are encoded for automatic generation of hierarchical and associative relationships. Nevertheless, difficulties are encountered in vocabulary control, and a similar phenomenon is observed in UDC. Current work has revealed differences in the vocabulary of humanities and science, notably the way in which terms in the humanities should be handled when these are semantically complex. Achieving a balance between rigour in the structure of the classification and the complexity of natural language expression remains partially unresolved at present, but provides a fertile field for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	09437444
DOI:	10.5771/0943-7444-2010-4-270