Faceted Classification

While reading a chapter by Vanda Broughton on faceted classification, I couldn't help but relate it to another reading in LIS2000, Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, in which he describes the relationships of items to each other and how they become linked in a network. He used a great classification system example to highlight how things must first take on many characteristics before they can be classified in a scheme that is categorically efficient; the periodic table of elements. Before it was created the elements needed defined by various characteristics, such as atomic number and weight. I think this is what Broughton is saying in that "faceted schemes are composed of all these little bricks and building blocks which must be put together to achieve the end result." I recommend the chapter for anyone interested in classification schemes.

Broughton, Vanda. “Faceted Classification.” Chapter 20 from her Essential Classification. New York: Neal Schuman, 2004.