[Sigcr-l] Exhaustivity and specifity of indexing

[Birger Hjørland]

Dear Kora, 
I believe, that you are making the wrong assumption that indexing and classification is different in this respect. If you take a concept from a controlled vocabulary (say, a thesaurus) this is in my opinion similar to taking a class from a a clasification system (which also represents a concept). So, the specificity of a term in a thesaurus depends on the number of terms given and the specificity of a class in a classification system depends on the number og classes given (the more terms/classes, the greater the specificity of applying a given term/class). It it worth considering however, that although the overall specificity can be measured by counting the number of descriptors/classes, any given system will have a greater specificity in some areas compared to others (DDC, for example, is much more specific in Christianity compared to other religions). 
 
Ill consider yours (and others) reactions to what I said on specificity before engaging in exhaustivity. 
 
kind regards
 
Birger
 
 
By the way, I am building a webside on such issues: "Lifeboat for Knowledge Organization" freely available at: http://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/home.htm
 
 
 
 
 

________________________________

Fra: sigcr-l-bounces at asis.org på vegne af Koraljka Golub
Sendt: to 24-08-2006 15:14
Til: sigcr-l at asis.org
Emne: [Sigcr-l] Exhaustivity and specifity of indexing



Hi,

Does anyone know of any references or have any opinion about
exhaustivity and specificity of classification, meaning assignment of
classes from a classification scheme. There is literature about
exhaustivity and specificity of indexing that I am aware of but it does
not suffice.

Thank you!

Kora
--
Koraljka Golub, PhD student
KnowLib, Lund University
http://www.it.lth.se/koraljka/Lund/

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