DURING the course of an analysis of some 1,600 periodical references, borrowed by the library of Butterwick Research Laboratories from outside libraries, the results of the analysis were compared with studies on the scatter of articles in periodicals carried out at the Science Library. These were originally published in the journal Engineering, vol. cxxxvii, p. 85, 26 Jan. 1934, and were recently summarized by S. C. Bradford in his book, Documentation (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, Ltd., 1948). A certain misunderstanding became evident in the algebraic analysis carried out by Bradford and his collaborators, further consideration of which has proved of interest.

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The article describes the nature of a faceted classification, and its application in document retrieval. The kinds of facet used are illustrated. Procedures are then discussed for identifying facets in a subject field, populating the facets with individual subject terms, arranging these in helpful sequences, using the scheme to classify documents, and searching the resultant classified index, with particular reference to Internet search.

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The paper discusses the emergence of the term 'ontology' in knowledge engineering (and now in information science). A definition of the term as currently used is given: an explicit specification of a 'world' that is to be represented in a computer system. The background that has led to the emergence of this concept is sketched, and examples of ontologies are provided. The process of building an ontology is discussed, and the uses of such tools in knowledge engineering. There is a concluding commentary comparing ontologies with similar tools used in information science.