THE ROLE OF CLASSIFICATION IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: ACTION AND THOUGHT IN THE CONTRIBUTION OF BRIAN VICKERY

An assessment of B.C. Vickery's contribution to the development of classification for retrieval. This has been both practical and intellectual. On the practical side his work in the early CRG and elsewhere enhanced the status of classification for retrieval as a significant field of study. On the intellectual side he demonstrated the use of his own elaborated version of Ranganathan's facets for the purposes of western special libraries. He analysed the essential features of retrieval systems generally as the required framework within which classification could usefully play a part. The paper discusses some remaining ‘grey areas’ in faceted classification, classificatory fragments implicit in many thesauri, and the value for expository purposes of a mildly polemic approach to issues in classification.