What is faceted classification?
Synonyms: analytico-synthetic classification
A faceted classification system allows the assignment of multiple classifications to an object, via typically several different facets, enabling the classifications to be ordered (using the facets) in multiple ways, rather than in a single, pre-determined, taxonomic order.
Faceted classification has of course found recent vogue in faceted navigation systems that enable a user to navigate information on a website hierarchically, going from a category to its sub-categories, but choosing the order in which the categories are presented. This contrasts with traditional web taxonomies in which the hierarchy of categories is fixed and unchanging.
For example, let's imagine a comparison website for local restaurants, which is using a traditional navigational model. This site might group restaurants first by location, then by type, price, rating, awards, ambiance, and amenities. A user using this site would traverse this fixed taxonomy, findings restaurants in each of the categories that the site designer has deemed best.
In a faceted system, a user might decide first to divide the restaurants by (the facets of) price, and then by location and then by type, while another user might choose to first sort the restaurants by (the facets of) type and then by award. Thus, faceted navigation, like taxonomic navigation, guides users by showing them available categories (or facets), but does not require them to browse through a hierarchy that may not precisely suit their needs or way of thinking.
In contrast to the tags created by users in a folksonomy, the information in a facet of a analytico-synthetic classification can be organized into a mini-hierarchy (for instance, a location facet could be divided into county, then city, then borough).
First faceted library classification system
The first faceted (or analytico-synthetic) system of library classification was created by the Indian mathematician and librarian Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1892 - 1972). So-called Colon Classification (CC) derives its name from the use of colons to separate facets in class numbers, and is the original ancestor of modern faceted browsing navigation models.
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