Using Dewey decimal classification scheme (DDC) for building taxonomies for knowledge organisation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410210441595 |
| Pages | 575-583 |
| Date | 01 October 2002 |
| Published date | 01 October 2002 |
| Author | Hamid Saeed,Abdus Sattar Chaudhry |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Using DDC for
building
taxonomies
575
Journal of Documentation,
Vol. 58 No. 5, 2002, pp. 575-583.
#MCB UP Limited, 0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/00220410210441595
Received 3 October 2001
Revised 5 June 2002
Accepted 11 June 2002
Using Dewey decimal
classification scheme (DDC)
for building taxonomies for
knowledge organisation
Hamid Saeed and Abdus Sattar Chaudhry
School of Communication anbd Information,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Keywords Classification, Internet, Information systems
Abstract Terms drawn from DDC indexes and IEEE Web Thesaurus were merged with DDC
hierarchies to build a taxonomy in the domain of computer science. When displayed as a directory
structureusing a shareware tool MyInfo, the resultanttaxonomy appeared to bea promising tool for
categorisation that can facilitate browsing of information resources in an electronic environment.
Introduction
The exponential growth of information resources on the Internet and the
World Wide Web has necessitated the need for more effective approaches for
organising information to achieve improved resource discovery. Categorisation
of resources using different types of directory structures is being used by
several services as a viable option for better organisation of Web-based
information resources. Yahoo, Lycos, and Google appear to be among the
pioneers in this initiative. Such directory structures are referred to by various
terms such as subject directories, pathfinders, subject hierarchies, and
taxonomies. These knowledge organisation tools provide a hierarchical
structure with considerable variation in complexity and sophistication. In most
cases, the categorisation schemes have been developed in-house and depend
mainly on human indexers. Hudon (2000) maintains that these new knowledge
organisation schemes share important weaknesses. These include lack of
standardisation, lack of consistency and specificity in the theoretical principles
of knowledge organisation, and lack of sound relational structures. Some
services, e.g. quality-controlled subject gateways, use traditional bibliographic
tools to organise resources on the Web. Koch (2000) affirms that these subject
gateways apply a rich set of quality measures to support systematic resource
discovery. The main goals of these gateways are to provide high quality
subject access through indexing resources using controlled vocabularies, and
offer a deep classification structure for advanced searching and browsing.
Walt (1997) highlighted the advantages of library classification schemes for
organisation of information resources in the Web environment. According to
Walt, the knowledge organisation tools developed and used by Web search
engines often feature shallow hierarchies and uneven coverage of topics. On the
other hand, Web search engines often respond to popular topics more quickly
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