Introduction

The purpose of this site is to provide an introduction to the principles of faceted classification with particular emphasis on those characteristics that make it suitable for the arrangement of electronic information.

As librarians or information professionals, our overriding aim is to enable library users to find the information they need. As more and more information is delivered electronically, it is important to understand the principles of organizing that information for our clients, whether that is through thesaurus design, the organization of a web site, or through enhancing the process of information retrieval. The Internet has developed in a haphazard manner with little input from the Library and Information Science (LIS) community. The more knowledge we have about the use of classification and subject analysis in electronic environments, the more effective we will be as information professionals and the more influence and credibility we will have with other information experts in the fields of knowledge management, computer technology, and web design.