Normative Principles: Work in the Idea Plane

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Normative Principles Work in the Idea Plane

• Devika P. Madalli
• Documentation Research and Training Centre,
• Indian Statistical Institute,
• Bangalore, INDIA

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Please Recall

• There are three planes of work
• Idea Plane World of ideas
• Verbal Plane World of Terminology
• Notation Plane World of Formalizations

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Normative Principles

• Ranganathans Normative Principles lay down the
  guidelines for work in Librarianship that
  includes Library Classification

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Normative Principles for Idea Plane

• Basic Exercise in idea plane is to get an IDEA
  of how and what a subject/domain is

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Idea Plane

• Idea Plane is the master plane for all
  classificatory work

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Idea Plane

• Starting point
• Again a huge collection of concepts that have to
  now be placed in a
• CLASSIFIED ORDER

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Idea Plane

• Steps Involved
• Assortment of concepts or isolates
• And Ranking them
• ! Define Rank
• Order of each element is fixed in sequence and
  this order is denoted by its Rank in arrays

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Assortment of Concepts

• Step 1 Assortment of Concepts into
  successive strata
• How do we do this?
• By defining Characteristics

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Characteristic

• ! Define Characteristic
• A Characteristic is a distinctive feature that
  definitely and unambiguously divides a given set
  of entities into atleast two divisions

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Characteristics

• Examples of distinctive features of entities
• To Classify Computers
• What are the distinctive features used?
• Computers
• Processing Speed
• - P-II, P-III, P-IV, Pentium
• Make
• IBM, Macs
• Would you consider - Weight of computers?

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Characteristic

• Example 2
• Domain Fiction
• By type
• Romance, Murder
• By Language
• English, Italian, French
• Would you consider number of pages?

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Characteristic

• ! Warning
• Your classification is ONLY as good as the
  characteristics that are used a basis for
  classification!

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Characteristic

• A characteristic should be directly related to
  the purpose of classification

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Cannons for Characteristics

• Some more definitions!
• ! Define Classificatory Structures
• Classificatory structures are structures that
  arise out of act of classifying. They are basic
  components of hierarchical structures

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Classificatory Structures

• There two types of classificatory structures
• Array horizontal structure
• Chain Vertical Structure

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Classificatory Structures

• ! Define Array
• An array is a horizontal structure made of set
  of classes or ranked isolates at any given level
  of a classification
• Note
• The set of classes are derived from a universe
  of concepts on the basis of a single
  characteristic at any one step/level in the
  progressive classification and arranged in a
  preferred sequence

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ARRAY

• Example
• Consider - Universe of Professors
• Classify by faculty
• ARRAY Comp. Sc.Professors, Physics Professors,
  Biotechnology Professors
• Consider - Universe of Plants
• Divide by grain/crop
• ARRAY Barley, Rice, Wheat

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Classificatory Structures

• ! Define Chain
• A vertical sequence made of links and classes at
  each order, derived as a result of successive
  classification
• ! Define Order
• Order is defined by the levels in the chain. It
  corresponds to number links at a given level.
• That is actually the number of successive
  characteristics applied till that level

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Canon for Characteristics

• There are five sets of Canons for Idea plane
• Canons for characteristics
• Cannons for succession of characteristics
• Cannons for Array of classes
• Cannons for Chain of classes
• Cannons for filiatory sequence

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Canons for Characteristics

• There are four Canons for Characteristics that
  direct the CHOICE of the Characteristics to be
  used as BASIS for classification

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Canons for Characteristics

• Canon of Differentiation
• A characteristic used as a basis of
  classification of entities in the common
  immediate universe should be such that it divides
  it into atleast two divisions
• ! Define Common Immediate Universe (CIU)
• Universe of concepts that is to be divided.
• The classes in any given order share the common
  features of the entities immediately above them
  (order above) as their Common Immediate Universe

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Canons for Characteristics

• Cannon of Differentiation
• Exercise
• Consider universe of students
• Differentiating Characteristics
• By level of study
• -- School, college, University
• By Faculty
• -- Engineering, Physics

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Canons for Characteristics

• Non-Differentiating Characteristics
• Consider Automobiles engines
• Characteristic -By having cylinders
• All of them do!
• So the differentiating characteristic should be
• number of cylinders

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Canons for Characteristics

• Non-Differentiating Characteristics
• Example
• Universe of Men
• Can be differentiated by characteristics such as
• - By profession
• - By height, etc
• Not by those who possess a head!

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Canons for Characteristics

• Canon of Relevance
• Characteristics used as the basis for
  classification of a universe should be relevant
  to the purpose of the Classification
• Relevance here is in relation to PURPOSE of
  classification

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Canons for Characteristics

• Examples
• Group of Boys
• To select a sub-group of them for
• Purpose I Sports
• Relevant characteristics Height, Sports medals
  etc.
• Purpose II Competitive Exams
• Relevant characteristics Intelligence IQ,
  previous awards, exam records.

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Canons for Characteristics

• Canon of Ascertainability
• A Characteristic used as the basis for the
  classification of a universe should be definite
  and ascertainable

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Canon of Ascertainability

• Example Literature
• We can individualize authors by
• Date of Birth (ascertainable)
• Date of Death? (not- ascertainable)

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Canons for Characteristics

• Canon of Permanence
• Characteristics used as the basis for the
  classification of a universe should continue to
  be unchanged so long as there is no change in the
  purpose of classification.

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Canon of Permanence

• Example
• Group of Politicians
• By their party ! (too much change!)
• More like classifying Chameleons by color of
  their skins!

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Permanence

• Periodicals/Journals if classified by publishing
  body it changes every time the publishing body is
  changes

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Permanence?

• Canon of Permanence Challenge
• Consider Classification of Territories (Space)
• The more permanent characteristics here would be
• Physiographical areas
• But more books are written on physical
  territories such as countries and states! Hence
  are they required by the users
• We know that this classification keeps changing!
• Even then we have to take this characteristic as
  it is required by the users

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Canons for Succession of Characteristics

• It is not ONLY important to select relevant,
  differentiating, ascertainable and permanent
  characteristics
• It is equally important that we apply these in
  relevant succession of their importance to
  purpose of classification

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Canons for Succession of Characteristics

• Canon of Concomitance
• Canon of Relevant Succession
• Canon of Consistent Succession

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Canons for Succession of Characteristics

• Canon of Concomitance
• No two characteristics in the associated scheme
  of characteristics should be concomitant that
  is, they should not give rise to the same array
  of subjects or of isolate ideas.
• !Define Associated Scheme of characteristics
• An Associated scheme of characteristics is a set
  of characteristics in a formalized order

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Canons for Succession of Characteristics

• Example
• When classifying a set students if we do
• by age
• and
• by DOB
• We get one and same array!

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Concomitance

• Subject example
• Botany classify plants as type of seed
• We get monocotyledon (all monocots), dicots
  (all dicots)
• Or classify plants by root system
• Fibrous root system
• -- monocotyledon all monocots by name
• Tap root system
• -- dicots all dicots by name

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Canon of Relevant Succession

• The succession of characteristics in an
  associated Scheme of characteristics should be
  relevant to the purpose of Classification

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Relevant Succession

• Example
• Consider Literature
• Relevant Characteristics are
• Author, Language, form, period
• But what should be their order?
• Language, Form, Author, Period.

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Canon of Consistent Succession

• Characteristics in the associated scheme of
  characteristics should be consistently adhered
  to, so long as there is no change in the purpose
  of classification.

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Consistent Succession

• This directly follows form Permanence.
  Characteristics should be as permanent as
  practically possible and their succession in
  application should also be consistently followed

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To be Continued

• Thank you
• Any Questions?