Potential Usage of Faceted Classification in Internet “Information Retrieval”

Abstract

Currently, faceted classification goes into the realm of the Internet “information retrieval” and it is more accepted as a tool outside the realm of the library and information science. Unfortunately, IT people have adopted the faceted classification without a methodologically full understanding of faceted classification. There is not much theoretical discussion about the possibility on the Internet environments based on its library original. In this paper, I will discuss the potential usage of faceted classification for “information retrieval” from a fundamental problem of relation of classification and searching/retrieval in an organic “information retrieval” system, which has much influence with changing from the library environments to the Internet environments. This change gives chances and challenges to faceted classification. With this change of environments, I want to argue that faceted classification keeps the merits of classification in information retrieval comparing with search engines and overcomes the problems with a traditional enumerative classification structure by providing for the flexible combination of terms to represent a specific complex/compound subject. Especially I want to argue that expressiveness of notation in faceted classification, which has been thought of as a defect until now, can find new usage as a potential switching/connection to multilingual information and a significant aiding in browse searching/retrieval and keyword searching/retrieval.