Organizing the Web: A Faceted Approach

Abstract

Today, the Internet is a popular media for information communication. Like a library it is a storehouse of information albeit in electronic format. But the amount of information available on the Internet is vast and unlike the library, the information is disorganized, chaotic and without systematic and semantic structure whatsoever. Due to which the users often end up with irrelevant results for their queries. Classifying and cataloguing the Internet would be a step forward in organizing it. This paper examines the need for classifying the Web resources; looks at the pros and cons of using library classification, as an organizational tool for Web resources; and the current usage of library classification schemes to organize the Internet (eg. BUBL Link). It further investigates the suitability of freely faceted classification scheme like Colon Classification to the ‘dynamic’ nature of the Internet compared to widely used enumerative schemes like DDC or LCC.