Abstract
This chapter introduces taxonomy, the ‘science’ of classification. Taxonomy is used to organize terms that express subjects, what something is ‘about’. Most taxonomies are arranged hierarchically, in strict layers: one of the most widely-used, the Dewey Decimal Classification, is organized in this way. More flexible taxonomies can take the shape of thesauri, controlled vocabularies which link terms to their broader and narrower counterparts. These have proved especially suited to the digital environment, where the flexibility they allow for terms to be combined by the searcher is particularly useful.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Durkheim, E. (1915). The elementary forms of the religious life. London: Allen and Unwin.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton and Company.
Dewey Blog. (2006). 025.431: The Dewey blog: Exciting tractor-related news. http://ddc.typepad.com/025431/2006/02/exciting_tracto.html. Accessed 5 Oct 2015.
Society of American Archivists. (2015). Precoordinate indexing | Society of American Archivists. http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/p/precoordinate-indexing. Accessed 5 Oct 2015.
Roget, P. M., & Kirkpatrick, B. (1987). Roget’s thesaurus of English words and phrases. London: Longman.
Prasher, R. G., & Mangla, P. B. (1997). Library and information science: Information science, information technology and its application. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.
Educational Resources Information Center (U.S.), & Houston, J. E. (2001). Vocabulary links: Thesaurus of ERIC descriptors. Phoenix: Oryx Press.
Weinberg, B. H. (1998). Thesaurus design for information systems. http://www.allegrotechindexing.com/article02.htm. Accessed 29 Sept 2015.
Darwin, C. (1860). On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or, the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: J. Murray.
World Health Organisation. (2015). International Classification of Diseases (ICD). http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/. Accessed 13 Oct 2015.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gartner, R. (2016). The Taxonomic Urge. In: Metadata. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40893-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40893-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40891-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40893-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)