Dear Neil, Martin et al.
Can we try and keep the postings in a language we all understand, namely
English and not academic gobbledygook, or is this some strange form of
Esperanto ;-)
Phil
-----Original Message-----
From: Neil Campling [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 03 September 2002 16:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [FISH] Classification vs Indexing
Dear Martin,
Yes, I wouldn't want to be absolutist this either. There is always an
exception to prove the rule.
But I find interesting the idea that classification may be amenable to some
statistical process such as Markov Chain analysis or Bayesian stats, a bit
like radiocarbon dating, where the final date is related to one's previous
ideas of how old the date should be ?!
Maybe there is some utility in discussing the "direction" of such processes,
similar to vector or scalar concepts. Perhaps classification recapitulates
a "phylogeny" (has time depth) of meaning, but indexing merely sets out a
timeless universe of location. But then we get ensnared in the pitfalls of
"claddism". Highly philosophical this, but it may help some classifiers.
Cheers,
Neil
>>> [log in to unmask] 03/09/2002 15:48:32 >>>
Dear Neil,
I completely agree with your point, that classification is about meaning, an
intellectual tool
to explore and understand relationships. I would however not associate
having rules or not
with either side. Morphological classes may quite well be found with rules
in some cases,
in others not at all. They may or may not in the sequence relate to
something meaningful,
such as a kind of use.
Indexing may equally be based on associations or categories, that are beyond
mathematical rules.
Indexing as a region in a topic space is in any case an aspect I like.
My point was, that there are many things we cannot classify. There should be
nothing we cannot
index.
Moreover, classification as a product of judgement is a kind of new
knowledge itself, and hence not
predictable to the user. Indices must be predictable to the user. He/she
must be able to produce
the applicable index term to what he/she expects to retrieve. The latter
however applies to
library classification systems par excellence. Probably library
classification has to be seen under
indexing, may be it is just one-dimensional, and misses the rest of the
topic space.
best wishes,
Martin
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