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The mayonnaise system is definitely not the solution. Rather it has the same fundamental problem. What is needed is a faceted classification system, which provi
by tokai 5y ago
The mayonnaise system is definitely not the solution. Rather it has the same fundamental problem. What is needed is a faceted classification system, which provides much less rigid categories and must higher detail where it is needed.
The issues LC have are not new. Neither are the solutions. Faceted classification is over hundred years old. But the reason something hasn't been done is how costly it is to break with the system you are using. Reclassifying is prohibitively expensive, and you get a discontinuation in the catalogue. Which rarely is worth the trouble of changing.
- stareatgoats 5y agoAgree: faceted classification is far better but the cost of changing the classification system is prohibitive. But with computerized cataloguing I don't see how one could eventually move the classification meaning away from the shelves and into the software, while preserving old classifications for backward compatibility. That way we might also (gradually) move away from the misconception that things belong to one and only one canonical classification hierarchy, a woeful notion that seems to permeate not only library classifications but our very understanding of the nature of things.