INFO 340 Information Retrieval

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INFO 340Information Retrieval

• Categorization, Order and Authority

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Order Classification/Categorization

• The concept of order and categorization continues
  to evolve
• As recently as last century, Mortimer Adler
  American Educator, Philosopher, Encyclopedia
  Britannica though leader fought against the use
  of alphabetization as a mechanism for ordering
• He wanted the encyclopedia, amongst other things,
  arranged alphabetically
• He called alphabetization intellectual
  dereliction

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Order Classification/Categorization

• 1952 Adler wrote Britannica published Great
  Books of the Western World
• Chronologically ordered
• 443 great works of Western history
• 54 volumes
• Syntopicon 1st two volumes 102 Great Ideas
• Adler wrote Propaedia
• Outline of Knowledge
• 186 sections arranged in 10 topics
• He said it, captures the intellectual heterodoxy
  of our time
• Whats the issue ?
• Work of one man his perspective biases

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Order Classification/Categorization

• Spatial Ordering
• Dewey Decimal system 1876
• Philosophy 100s
• Religion 200s
• Social sciences 300s
• Language, natural sciences, math 500s
• Technology applied sciences 600s
• Arts recreation 700s
• Literature rhetoric 800s
• Geography, history, biography 900s
• Physical layout of libraries reflected basic
  structure of knowledge

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Order Classification/Categorization
Philosophy 100s Technology applied sciences 600s
Religion 200s Arts recreation 700s
Social sciences 300s Literature rhetoric 800s
Language, natural sciences, math 500s Geography, history, biography 900s
-- Dewey believed library physical layout should
reflect this basic structure of knowledge. --
Whole numbers provide top level categorization
within these classes -- Subcategories are
indicated with decimals to the right of the whole
number
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Order Classification/Categorization

• Some issues w/Deweys system
• Ultimately tree-like w/several roots
• Philosophy, Religion, Social Sciences, etc
• Each tree always implies a top or root and hence
  an order. For example,
• 8 of the 9 major divisions under Religion are
  explicitly for Christian books
• Judaism gets its own whole number (296)
• Islam shares its number with two other religions
  (Babism Bahai (297)
• Buddhism doesnt even get a whole number (294.3)

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Order Classification/Categorization

• Other classification tidbits
• Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental
  Disorders
• 1952 homosexuality listed as sociopathic
  personality disturbance
• 1968 first entry under disorder 302, Sexual
  Deviations
• 1972 taken off sick list
• Categorizing, classifying, and ordering and who
  does it is powerful

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Order Classification/Categorization

• Deweys biographer Wiegand writes, the
  organization of knowledge Dewey produced
  solidified a worldview and knowledge structure
  taught on a particular college campus (Amherst)
  between 1870-1875. (Weinberger Weigand)
• This is not knocking those that created ordering
  systems before (or that create them now)
• They usually provided order where there was not
  before.
• What good is a library if you cant find a book ?
• What good is a phone book if you cant find a
  name ?
• However, it is important for us to know the
  biases of those systems as well as the
  limitations of those systems

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Order Classification/Categorization

• Other early cataloguing systems
• Library at Alexandria organized by poet
  Callimachus 3rd century BCE
• 120 volume catalogue of over 400,000 scrolls
• Catalogues frequently used topical categorization
  such as by type of author poet, lawmaker,
  historian, etc.
• Just 50 years after Gutenbergs printing press,
  some libraries organized by size because of the
  volume of books
• Charles Coffin Jewett, Smithsonian librarian
  developed his own system in 1852 and
• came up with the idea of putting the catalogue
  entries on cards

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Order Classification/Categorization

• Other cataloguing systems
• S. R. Ranganathan born in Southern India in 1892
• Proposed 5 basic areas of classification or
  facets
• Personality, matter, energy, space, time
• Created a colon classification system
• Eg, a book on management of Indian banks up to
  1950 would be X628.44N5
• X for economics (personality), 62 for banks
  (matter), 8 for management (energy), 44 for India
  (space), and N5 for 1950 (time)

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Order Classification/Categorization

• So if Dewey Decimal System is so limited, why not
  fix it ?
• It cant be because the classification system is
  fixed
• Categories classifications change on a regular
  basis because, among other things, perceptions
  and beliefs change
• Some punk, hip-hop, heavy metal becomes pop
• World views change

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Order Classification/Categorization

• Classic classification system Linnaeus (born
  1702)
• Divided the animals into vertebrates
  invertebrates
• Vertebrates (which we now know contains 40,000
  species) into 4 categories
• Invertebrates (containing approx a million
  species) into 2 categories
• Only approx 15,000 species were known at the time
• Stephen Jay Gould points out that if your
  categorization system divides your domain into 2
  lumps that are not very even, there is reason for
  suspicion. (Weinberger)

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My desk drawer
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Periodic Tables

• Many versions
• Best known is Mendeleevs based on Atomic Number
• But not necessarily most accurate
• Not best in all cases

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Periodic Table

• Mendeleev

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Periodic Table
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Periodic Table
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Periodic Table
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Plato Pluto

• Plato philosophical divisions of knowledge
  implied there were known natural divisions of
  knowledge
• Compared knowledge of the world to butchering an
  animal
• Knowing where the joints of the animal were
• Where to cut
• Suggested similarly that knowledge also has
  natural points of division
• but does it ?
• Planetary classification -- What happened to
  Pluto ?
• 2003 -- CalTech astronomer discovered a chunk of
  ice beyond Neptune that was bigger than Pluto
• If its bigger than Pluto and its not a planet,
  should Pluto be a planet ?
• What exactly is a planet ?
• Is it a cultural term ? Scientific term ? Both ?

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Order Classification/Categorization

• Weinberger suggests 3 orders of order
• 1st order the object itself
• 2nd order physical redirection, e. g. card
  catalogue
• 3rd order bits, almost zero-space and almost
  zero-time ordering

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Class Exercise

• Divide into groups of 5 6 answer these
  questions
• Is the American political party system roughly
  Republican, Democrat, and Independent the best
  system ?
• What would be better ? Why ?
• BTW, do you think that I implicitly gave an order
  of importance when I listed the parties above ?
• What about the ones that I left out ?
• Identify 3 sets/groups of things that are poorly
  classified. Why is it poorly classified ? What
  would you do to fix it?
• e.g., Albertsons.com ? Homedepot.com ?

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Class Exercise

• Jorge Borges Classification System (from a
  certain Chinese encylopedia, The Celestial
  Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge)
• 1. those that belong to the Emperor,
• 2. embalmed ones,
• 3. those that are trained,
• 4. suckling pigs,
• 5. mermaids,
• 6. fabulous ones,
• 7. stray dogs,
• 8. those included in the present
  classification,
• 9. those that tremble as if they were mad,
• 10. innumerable ones,
• 11. those drawn with a very fine camelhair
  brush,
• 12. others,
• 13. those that have just broken a flower vase,
• 14. those that from a long way off look like
  flies.
• Exercise In groups, give yourselves 10 minutes
  to do the following Imagine spending 4 hours in
  Woodland Park Zoo on a sunny day. Enumerate as
  many animals (caged, uncage, other) as possible
  for each of the above categories.