Facet

Abstract

S.R. Ranganathan is credited with the introduction of the term “facet” in the field of knowledge organization towards the middle of the twentieth century. Facets have traditionally been used to organize document collections and to express complex subjects. In the digital world, they act as filters to facilitate navigation and improve retrieval. But the popularity of the term does not mean that a definitive characterization of the concept has been established. Indeed, several conceptualizations of the facet co-exist. This article provides an overview of formal and informal definitions found in the literature of knowledge organization, followed by a discussion of four common conceptualizations of the facet: process vs product, nature vs function, object vs subject and organization vs navigation.

A knowledge organization framework for influencing tourism-centered place-making

“…A facet is a set of isolates (smallest unit of knowledge) identified based on a single train of characteristics (Ranganathan, 1957). Many other definitions of facet and also of facet analysis exist based on its interpretations (Hudon, 2020). Facet analysis is the sorting of terms belonging to a given field of knowledge into homogeneous, mutually exclusive facets based on a single characteristic of division (Vickery, 1960).…”

“…Contemporary researchers have recognized the suitability of Ranganathan's methods centering facets for organizing, searching and retrieving online content (Hudon, 2020, p. 329). Keeping up with the current demands of knowledge organization, Giunchiglia and Dutta (2011), Giunchiglia et al (2014) have proposed the categories D , E , R , A (Domain, Entity, Relation, Attribute, respectively).…”

“…Similar other proposed categories in contemporary research are Giunchiglia et al 's (2012) C , E , R , A (set of classes, entities, binary relations, attributes), Madalli et al 's (2017) D , C , R , P (Domain, Concept, Hierarchical relation, Property, respectively) which have been used in ontologies. The Classification Research Group has demonstrated that a same concept can belong to different facets based on the environment and has listed 13 categories of facets, namely thing/entity, kind, part, property, material, process, operation, patient, product, by-product, agent, space, time (Hudon, 2020, p. 327; Giunchiglia and Dutta, 2011). The fundamental categories for classifying scientific domains proposed by Vickery (1960) are Substance (product), Organ, Constituent, Structure, Shape, Property, Object of action (patient, raw material), Action, Operation, Process, Agent, Space, Time.…”