Building a faceted classification for the humanities: principles and procedures
| Published date | 11 September 2007 |
| Pages | 727-754 |
| Date | 11 September 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410710827772 |
| Author | Vanda Broughton,Aida Slavic |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Building a faceted classification
for the humanities: principles
and procedures
Vanda Broughton and Aida Slavic
School of Library, Archive and Information Studies,
University College London, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to provide an overview of principles and procedures involved in creating
a faceted classification scheme for use in resource discovery in an online environment.
Design/methodology/approach – Facet analysis provides an established rigorous methodology
for the conceptual organization of a subject field, and the structuring of an associated classification or
controlled vocabulary. This paper explains how that methodology was applied to the humanities in the
FATKS project, where the objective was to explore the potential of facet analytical theory for creating
a controlled vocabulary for the humanities, and to establish the requirements of a faceted classification
appropriate to an online environment. A detailed faceted vocabulary was developed for two areas of
the humanities within a broader facet framework for the whole of knowledge. Research issues included
how to create a data model which made the faceted structure explicit and machine-readable and
provided for its further development and use.
Findings – In order to support easy facet combination in indexing, and facet searching and browsing
on the interface, faceted classification requires a formalized data structure and an appropriate tool for
its management. The conceptual framework of a faceted system proper can be applied satisfactorily to
humanities, and fully integrated within a vocabulary management system.
Research limitations/implications – The procedures described in this paper are concerned only
with the structuring of the classification, and do not extend to indexing, retrieval and application
issues.
Practical implications – Many stakeholders in the domain of resource discovery consider
developing their own classification system and supporting tools. The methods described in this paper
may clarify the process of building a faceted classification and may provide some useful ideas with
respect to the vocabulary maintenance tool.
Originality/value – As far as the authors are aware there is no comparable research in this area.
Keywords Classificationschemes, Design
Paper type Research paper
Research context
This paper describes part of the work of a recent research project carried out at the
School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London,
funded by a grant from the (then) Arts and Humanities Research Board. Under the
formal title “Towards a knowledge structure for high performance subject access and
retrieval within managed digital collections” the research investigated the feasibility of
creating a fully faceted indexing language for use with digital resources in the
humanities.
The work was occasioned in the first instance by the proposed merger of the two
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded portals which deal with
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
Building
a faceted
classification
727
Received 5 September 2006
Revised 5 February 2007
Accepted 15 February 2007
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 63 No. 5, 2007
pp. 727-754
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/00220410710827772
humanities resources in the UK, the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), and the
Humbul Humanities Hub (Broughton, 2002a, c). Both of these catalogued resources to a
high standard, using Dublin Core. This of course, provides only a template for subject
description with no preferred standard to be applied. A variety of tools for subject
description were being used within the two services, and it was felt desirable to replace
these with a single one.
The AHDS consists of five separately managed data services dealing with history,
archaeology, the visual arts, performing arts, and e-texts. The AHDS is also a dig ital
repository, and holds several million items in its catalogues. Typically, the digital
objects held by AHDS have very complex subject content, and are in a variety of
media. Images are particularly important, but the repository also contains sound
recordings, film and video, animation, and multi-media resources. A major problem for
the service was the difficulty of cross-collection searching. At the time of the research,
any attempt at this had been abandoned in favour of separate searching of the
individual data services, even though this meant that searchers failed to retrieve much
of the relevant material.
The Humbul Humanities Hub is a rather different kind of resource. It locates,
evaluates and describes digital resources, but does not itself hold any. It deals with
material in conventional humanities subjects such as history, philosophy, theology,
language and literature, cultural studies of various sorts, and library and museum
studies.
The merger, originally projected for 2002, failed to happen, so the research work
could not be tested. Nevertheless, we feel this was a valuable exercise both in
constructing the test vocabulary, and in structuring the data in a way that would
support some degree of computer assisted indexing.
Potential of facet analysis for a networked environment
The history of facet analysis is now fairly well documented. To date, it has mainly been
used in the construction of systems for conventional library subject management, i.e.
documentary classification schemes. As a system for the physical organization and
display of printed material, it has proved its worth in terms of the detail achievable in
subject description and in improved capacity for retrieval. The logic and predictability
of the structure of a faceted system, the methodology for the analysis and
categorization of concepts, and the existence of reliable rules for synthesis make it an
obvious choice for building tools for electronic data management.
As early as the 1980s the potential for faceted approaches to information retrieval in
managed electronic environments, such as catalogues and databases, had been realised
(Go
¨dert, 1987, 1991; Ingwersen and Wormell, 1992), and with the coming of the internet
its applicability to both managed and unmanaged online information was discussed
(Duncan, 1989; Ellis and Vasconcelos, 1999, 2000). Further, work on the
faceted approach in the 1990s saw the development of applications such as
“view-based” and “facet space” systems that, within a Windows environment, allowed
the simultaneous display of two or more facet hierarchies using cascaded-menus and
interactive windows as an aid to search formulation and retrieval (Pollitt et al.; 1996,
1998; Allen, 1995a, b). More recently, commercial developers have begun to exploit the
faceted approach online, and it is now not uncommonly found in retail web sites, where
very basic faceted structures are employed in the search interface (Merholz, 2001;
JDOC
63,5
728
To continue reading
Request your trial