Agree: faceted classification is far better but the cost of changing the classification system is prohibitive. But with computerized cataloguing I don't see how

Agree: 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.