ISKO Italia. Integrative level classification
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updated April 2008
Unlike most library classification schemes, ILC classes do not represent disciplines and their subdivisions, but phenomena of the real world.
Phenomena are listed in order of integrative levels. As classes are basically represented by letters, this means that simpler phenomena, like atoms or molecules, are represented by low letters like c, d, e, f, while more complex and integrated phenomena, like societies and cultures, are represented by higher letters such as s, t, u, v:
... d particles e atoms f molecules g bodies h celestial objects i rocks j landforms k genes l cells m organisms n populations ...
Further letters, written in low cases, mean subclasses, namely kinds of their main classes:
m organisms mf mushrooms ml algae mm mosses mp vascular plants mq animals mqm mollusca mqr arthropoda mqrh crustaceans mqri insects mqv chordata, vertebrata mqvh bony fish mqvl reptiles mqvo birds mqvt mammals
In this way, a longer string means a more specific phenomenon (as in traditional library classifications). At each degree of specificity, whenever possible, phenomena are listed in an evolutionary sequence, or increasing logical depth.
In some (not common) cases, more than 26 subclasses of the same class are needed. Zoology teaches us that Mqvh bony fish has more than 26 subclasses. To cope with this, some less relevant subclasses can be expressed with the "empty digit" z, giving them the same specificity as the adjacent classes, despite having a different number of digits:
mqvhx tetraodontiformes mqvhxzf pleuronectiformes mqvhxzs scorpaeniformes mqvhy perciformes
When several phenomena occur together and are considered in generic relationship between each other ("generic phase relationship" or "free relationship"), they can be simply listed together, separated by a blank space (free classification in Gardin's terms). It is usually preferable that they be written starting from the highest integrative level (namely the highest first letter) and going on with more and more low levels, in the reversed order of the schedules:
mqvt mf hU mammals : mushrooms : the Earth n mqvt populations : mammals
Facets are more specific relationships, representing typical aspects of a phenomenon in connection with other phenomena. Facets of organisms are growth stage (embryo, larva, adult), organs (heart, lungs, kidneys), and sex (female, male); facets of music are players (persons, groups), instruments (drums, guitars, trumpets), and genre (root, jazz, rock).
As these examples show, facets change according to the different phenomena. However, they roughly belong to a limited number of general categories, according to their syntactical relation to the phenomenon (sometimes also described as their role or, in linguistics, their case or complement). General categories, and the corrisponding facets, are represented by numerals (where needed, two or more digits can be used to define a more specific facet):
0 considered under aspect, modality 1 at time, in sequence 2 in location, context 3 through process, transformation 4 of material, constituents 5 with organs, parts 6 by factor, origin 7 for function, to destination 8 having pattern, like, about topic 9 of kind, quality
In music, players are agents, hence they are facet 6:
xm music
xm6 music by player...
xm6{beatles} music played by the Beatles
xm6{radiohead} music played by the Radiohead
(As players are usually individual humans or groups identified by a name, the name itself can be used as a subclass. In this case it is written between {}, not to be confused with subclass b, sub-subclass be, sub-sub-subclass bea, etc.)
In animals, geographical distribution is a location, hence it is facet 2:
m animals m2 animals with distribution m2e animals distributed in Europe m2o animals distributed in Oceania
while sex is one possible form of the organism, hence it is facet 9:
m organisms m9 of sex m9f females m9m males
Facets of a given class also hold for all its subclasses:
mqm9f female mollusca mqri9f female insects mqvl9f female reptiles
(unless another facet of the same category is defined at a subclass, so that they are cascading facets holding at different degrees of specifity).
When more than one facet are expressed for the same phenomenon, they should be cited in the reversed order of numerals, according to the inversion principle: as 9 is greater than 2,
mqvl9f2e female reptiles in Europe
Only when a subject is discussed focusing especially on one aspect, the corresponding facet can be moved before another despite the standard citation order:
mqvl2e9f European reptiles, female
The value of a facet can sometimes be left unexpressed. This can be done by a capital X after the facet indicator:
mqvl2X reptiles in some region
X is a deictic meaning "some".
Reversed relations, i.e. passive facets, can be obtained by prefixing 9 to the facet digit:
u6v economies influenced by technologies v96u technologies influencing economies
They are used to put the central topic of a document first:
n9qvtniok populations of killer whales o9vtniok behaviour of killer whales mqvtniok99n99o killer whales: their populations and behaviour
as in "Ross sea killer whale distribution, behavior, color pattern, and vocalizations", a 1981 book by JA Thomas et al. classified in BARD.
The meaning of some facets is appliable in any main class: geographical location can be a facet of any phenomenon, as can causation. These common facets are defined at the most general degree, and keep their meaning in all subclasses, except where a more specific meaning is defined (respecting the principle of cascading facets). You don't need to find it in the schedule of a specific class to apply it, as they are applicable throughout the whole scheme. (In other general classifications they are called "common subdivisions" or "common auxiliaries".)
Most general facets are expressed by just one digit, while more digits represent a more specific meaning which is a combination of the corresponding categories: 16 means "originated/born at time", as 1 means "at time" and 6 means "from factor or origin". Multi-digit facets beginning with 8 are used to express passive facets.
The list of common facets can be seen by browsing the coloured categories on the right of the schedules main page.
In classes where specific facets are defined for the same category, in order to avoid ambiguity, common facets have to be written after a closing bracket:
2 [jU] in region (common facet) jUe European region 2e in the European region u2 [tnU] economies in country u2e Italy u2e economies in Italy u)2e economies in the European region
[:] is found in the schedules:
m organisms m9 [:] sex m9f female m9m male
In other cases, however, the values of facets are taken from a different level of phenomena. Music players are always humans, they cannot be atoms or rocks. So the facet of players in music is defined outside the class of music. Let's take another example: breeding always use as its material some animal: there are no tame rocks or tame trumpets, only tame animals. Hence facet 3 (material) of vd pastoralism always is some animal mq, and in the schedules is written
vd pastoralism vd4 [mq] breeding tame species
This means that subclasses of facet vd4 are the same as subclasses of mq, and their notation must be taken from mq (technically, they can be called extra-defined foci, instead of context-defined foci as in the previous example):
m organisms mq animals mqv vertebrates mqvo birds vd4 [mq] breeding tame species vd4v breeding vertebrates vd4vo breeding birds
In case the related class is unusually not a subclass of the foreseen class, its notaton will be written in brackets:
vd4(le) breeding bacteria
Finally, some facets provide for relation with any other possible phenomenon in the schedules. Take knowledge. It has an object, which can be expressed by facet 8:
y knowledge y8 [*] knowledge about object
Actually, knowledge can have any object, so its notation can be built by combination with any other part of the schedules. This fact is expressed by the symbol [*].
y8e knowledge about atoms y8mqvo knowledge about birds y8xm knowledge about music y8y knowledge about knowledge
As a consequence of the place of definition, when a class is the subclass of a faceted concept, it must be introduced by ). Consider this case:
q5 [o5] communication through channel q5h acoustic communication
We now want to have the notation for vocal communication, which is a subclass of acoustic communication. However, if we would use q5hv, that would mean "communication through channel o5hv", which is a different meaning. Instead, to express the fact that vocal communication is a subclass of the whole faceted class q5h, we have to write
q5h)v acoustic communication
y also has other facets, including
y6 [U] knowledge from teacher...
Now, suppose that we have to build the classmark for "knowledge of music played by the Beatles". Component notation is
xm6{beatles} music by the Beatles
y8 [*] knowledge about object
but if we simply put them together, we get
y8xm6{beatles}
which can be interpreted as "knowledge about music, taught by the Beatles" as facet 6 of y means teachers of knowledge. What we want to express, instead, is that knowledge is about an object consisting of "music played by the Beatles". To avoid this ambiguity, we must express that 6 is a subfacet of facet 8, not a facet of y; subfacets are written in round brackets:
y8xm(6{beatles}) knowledge of music played by the Beatles
When indexing deeply specialized documents, the nesting of subfacets can become very complicated: a document entitled "Guidelines on the applications of the environment protection and biodiversity conservation act to interactions between offshore operations and larger cetaceans" would be
v8ve48mqvtn(802o68t(3)25c)4d
To make notation less awful and easier to parse by both humans and computers, it can be "flattened" by writing some facets as separate terms introduced by free relationship:
v4d8 ve48 mqvtn802o68t(3)25c
Here, ending facet indicators 8 and 48 refer to the whole subsequent phase, thus avoiding most brackets.
Relationship sometimes occur between complex concepts, each possibly including facets or other relations. In this case, the two related concepts (called the phases) are grouped in brackets, and connected by the appropriate category digit. Opening bracket of the first group is omitted:
u2e economies in Italy y8v knowledge of technology u2e)6(y8v) economies in Italy influenced by knowledge of technology
Likely used phase relationships are:
)( general phase relation, coordination )1( at time )2( in region )3( through process, mechanism )4( with parts )5( with components, organs )6( influenced by )68( interacting with )7( applied to )8( compared to )934( as a mean for )96( influencing, impacting on
)( is a generic phase relationship, similar in meaning to free relationship, as no specific kind of relationship is expressed:
u2e)(y8t) economies in Italy related (in some way) to knowledge of technology
Sometimes a phase relationship, such as u n "economy in relation to population", can be nested within a facet. In this case, expressing it by a blank space such as in
y8u n knowledge of economy : populations ??
would yield a problematic classmark, as n would be parsed as a separate class. To avoid this, within a faceted classmark, the related class is expressed in brackets. Hence
y8u(n) knowledge of economy in relation to population
To summarize it, two classes aaa and bbb can stay in these relationships [Gnoli 2007d]:
aaa bbb free relationship (free classification sensu Gardin) aaa)6(bbb) phase relationship (freely-faceted classification sensu Austin) aaa(6bbb) common facet (faceted classification) aaa6bbb cascading facet defined within class a (faceted classification)
Two or more classes sharing the same syntactical role can be listed in the same order of schedules and glued by the symbol W (or &):
iWm rocks and organisms
This can also happen within a facet:
y8i knowledge of rocks y8iWm knowledge of both rocks and organisms
By default, symbol W introduces a sister class, i.e. a class sharing all letters except for the last one, so that abcdWx means "abcd together with abcx". To list non-syster classes, W must be followed by another upper case, which means the number of letters shared with the previous class, starting to count from the beginning of the classmark:
abcdWAx = abcd together with x abcdWBx = abcd together with ax abcdWCx = abcd together with abx etc.
A consecutive series of classes can be expressed by connecting the notation of the first and the last of them by the symbol V (or %):
jVm = jWkWlWm rocks and genes and cells and organisms
When used in subclasses, by default it introduces a sister class, like in the case of conjunctions:
mlVp = mlWmmWmnWmoWmp algae and mosses (and ...) and vascular plants
Analogously, to include non-syster classes, V must be followed by a deictic, which means the number of letters shared with the previous class, starting to count from the beginning of the classmark:
abcdefVAg = abcdef to g abcdefVBg = abcdef to ag abcdefVCg = abcdef to abg abcdefVDg = abcdef to abcg
Some phenomena are of particular interest to human knowledge. Among all organisms, Man is obviously the most interesting and studied in human knowledge. As an anthropoid primate mammal, its complete notation would be something like mqvtphh; but it is helpful that this long notation be shortened, and Man is listed first among organisms as the one most frequently discussed. To this purpose, the class U "the typical" is used as a differentia, meaning "that which we all have in mind":
h celestial objects hU the Earth hk stars hkU the Sun k landforms kU = k2(hU)1h landforms of the Earth in Holocene (contemporary era) U = mqvtphh people, humans
Some concepts change their meaning according to the context. Examples are the concepts of "next", "tomorrow", "here", "you"... The meaning of "tomorrow" depends on which day is it today; the meaning of "you" depends on whom am I speaking together. These concepts are called deictics and in ILC are represented by upper-case letters (previously Aa, 98, @). Thus:
cb time cbU now AM I, we AO you
A to T are the favoured host classes or the domain of discourse. They represent the focus phenomena of concern in the present context. This is useful when most expressed knowledge is about a specific domain, so that a special classification scheme can be used instead of the general one. All classes beginning with A ... T are subclasses of the favoured class, either taken from the general schedules (lower case letters, e.g. Abcd), or in turn locally defined (capital letters, e.g. ABCD).
For example, the Dandelion bibliography of facet analysis mostly concerns subject indexing, its subclasses and its facets. In the general ILC schedule there is
y knowledge yi indexes, catalogues yis subject indexes, knowledge organization systems yis3 [:] indexing methods, systems yis3e enumeration yis3f facet analysis yis3l level analysis yis5 [:] elements yis5n controlled terms yis5s subject strings yis5t notation yise keyword indexes yish term indexes, thesauri yisj subject headings yisl systematic indexes, classifications, taxonomies yiso semantic networks, ontologies
Hence most references in the bibliography should be classified by subclasses and facets of yis. To get a shorter notation, and to get the preferred topics at the beginning of lists, yis is stated to be the preferred class A:
A subject indexes, knowledge organization systems A3 by indexing methods, systems A3e enumeration A3f facet analysis A3l level analysis A5 with elements A5n controlled terms A5s subject strings A5t notation Ae keyword indexes Ah term indexes, thesauri Aj subject headings Al systematic indexes, classifications, taxonomies Ao semantic networks, ontologies
Y means individual instances of a class: mqY are individual animals, tnY are individual countries, etc. Individuals have no subclasses in the proper sense. Thus, further letters usually mean parts of them:
tnY individual countries tnYa country A tnYab district B of country A
Deictics can also be used in combination: AVD "A to D", YX "what individual".
The scheme of phenomena in ILC is intended to be as objective and neutral as contemporary knowledge allows. Of course, one could always claim that this is only one among many possible views of the world, as it happens in any classification; anyway, the scheme is being developed with an effort towards neutrality.
Sometimes, however, there is a need to reflect different and particular viewpoints in classification -- that is, of viewpoint warrant, as Begthol terms it. Examples are the alternative orderings in knowledge of indigenous people, of non-Western traditions, of adepts of some faith or theory, of children, or schemes for special purposes. In the general scheme of ILC, they will usually fall under classes v "cultures" and y "knowledge":
mq animals y knowledge y8 knowledge of object y8mq knowledge of animals yd traditional knowledge yd8mq traditional knowledge of animals yg magic yg8mq magical knowledge of animals yn science yn8mq zoology
A most classical example reported by Borges and Foucault is the weird classification of animals in a Chinese encyclopedia entitled "Celestial emporium of benevolent knowledge". It will fall under something like
ydx ancient Chinese cultures ydxx ancient Chinese culture X ydxx8mq ancient Chinese culture X dealing with animals
Now, subclasses of ydxx8mq do not follow a contemporary scientific classification like
ydxx8mqb poriphera ydxx8mqc cnidaria, coelenterata ydxx8mqd ctenofora [etc.]
but a very idiosyncratic system, which can be expressed after a closing bracket, as it is a subclass of this particular combination of facets:
ydxx8mq)a animals that belong to the Emperor ydxx8mq)b embalmed animals ydxx8mq)c animals that are trained ydxx8mq)d suckling pigs ydxx8mq)e mermaids ydxx8mq)f fabulous animals ydxx8mq)g stray dogs ydxx8mq)h animals included in the present classification ydxx8mq)i animals that tremble as if they were mad ydxx8mq)j innumerable animals ydxx8mq)k animals drayd with a very fine camelhair brush ydxx8mq)l other animals ydxx8mq)m animals that have just broken a flower vase ydxx8mq)n aninals that from a long way off look like flies
A knowledge base organized according to this system could be indexed by these classmarks. As the initial sequence ydxx8mq) occurs in the majoirity or totality of cases, it can be shortened by upper-case letters, giving
A animals that belong to the Emperor B embalmed animals C animals that are trained D suckling pigs [etc.]
In cases where the studied phenomenon is more relevant than the viewpoint, notation can be reversed to give priority to the phenomenon:
mq98ydxx animals according to ancient Chinese culture X mq98ydxy animals according to culture Y
The sequence 98y, meaning "being topic of culture", can be substituted by the common facet 06 [v9]:
mq06nxx animals according to ancient Chinese culture X mq06ny animals according to culture Y
A similar device can be used also to express the method of study (y3) in Szostak's favoured sequence of phenomenon, theory, and method:
mq03b animals studied through observation mq04y03b animals according to theory Y studied through observation
and for Vickery's activities:
mp07va plants studied for health applications mp07wa plants studied for food applications
One particular viewpoint which is often adopted is that of academic disciplines studying phenomena. Although ILC classes represent phenomena instead of disciplines, the latter can be represented as a kind of phenomena, at the integrative level of knowledge:
y knowledge y8 of object yn sciences ynd physics ynf chemistry ynh geology ynl biology ynl8yr biology of forests ynq linguistic ynr sociology ynu economics ynu8yr economics of forests
If now we set yn as the favoured class A, we obtain a discipline-based scheme similar to those of traditional bibliographic classifications:
Ad physics Af chemistry Ah geology Al biology Al8nyr biology of forests Aq linguistic Ar sociology Au economics Au8nyr economics of forests
While works about literature, cinema, etc. must be classified in xl, xs etc., works of literature and cinema must not; indeed, they are not about arts, but are in form of art [Kyle 1959]. So, what are they about?
In most cases, literary works are about topics related with people and society, in a more or less fictional set. Thus, they can be classified as pg08i "imaginary personalities", or s08i "imaginary communities", etc., depending on what level is the focus one. 08i will not apply to e.g. documentary films.
For example, Maigret novels mainly deal with murders t70d, and the emotions and personalities p of people involved in them, in 20th century
t1j France tnUc; thus, they can be classified as tnUc70d68p1j08i. If author is relevant, it can be expressed: tnUc70d68p1j08i006{simenon}. If one wants to account for the document being a video adaptation of Simenon novels, the 00v carrier suffix can be added. Wim Wender's film "The American friend" deals with friendship pew by a fictional story set in Germany 0829b in form of moving images 00v; thus, it can be classified as pew08i0829b00v.
On the other hands, if the form is considered to be more relevant than the contents, like in a
collection of poems on very disparate subjects, the classmark can consist only of formal facets: 0040h003eir "poems in French".
How ILC works / [Claudio Gnoli] = (ISKO Italia. ILC) – <http://www.iskoi.org/ilc/how.htm> : 2005.08.04 - 2008.06.06 -