Beyond having a notation or an alphanumeric code associated with each term, how does a classification system differ from a taxonomy? This is a pertinent question as both, classification system and taxonomy, are knowledge organization systems. In addition, in both, the terms are arranged in a hierarchy of multiple levels, without having related-term relationships or necessarily synonyms/nonpreferred terms. Despite the similarities, classification systems and taxonomies differ in more ways than one.
In a classification system, everything in a subject domain is covered comprehensively with a classification code and a label. The code/notation help divide knowledge into broad classes, sub-classes, sub-sub-classes, etc. There is often no room for expansion, except for a few unused sub-unit codes in each area for new topics, as codes/notations are planned during the design stage of a classification system. Moreover, the approach to building a classification system can be summed up as determining where a document goes.
Conspicuously, in a taxonomy, the focus is on specific terms rather than on the division of a subject domain into classes and subclasses, etc. The terms are hierarchically related to each other and cover the topics appearing in the body of the content even though the topics might not fall into neatly balanced hierarchies. Furthermore, a taxonomy is used for tagging or indexing, not for classification or cataloging. So, when building a taxonomy, the approach is more in terms of what is/are the main topic(s) of a document.
When building a classification system or a taxonomy often both lumping and splitting — two opposing viewpoints in categorization and classification — are used. However, the design of modern taxonomies tends to involve more lumping, whereas the design of classification systems involve more splitting. That is why, while building a classification system or a taxonomy, the mindset too should differ. Otherwise, a proposed taxonomy will end up resembling a classification system and vice versa.
Click here to read the original article published by Hedden Information Management.
Please give your feedback on this article or share a similar story for publishing by clicking here.
