“In scientific information, then, we find that subjects - the themes and topics on which books and articles are written - cluster into fields, each of which can be analysed into its characteristic set of facets of terms.”

—  Brian Campbell Vickery

Source: Classification and indexing in science (1958), Chapter 1: The need for classification, p. 11.

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Brian Campbell Vickery 84
British information theorist 1918–2009

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“The most important characteristic of documentary classification is that it is concerned with subjects, not just entities of taxonomic classification. What is the nature of the specific subjects - the themes on which books, parts of books, articles or parts of articles are written? A study of book titles alone would suggest that literary subjects have simple names like 'War, Religion', 'Boats', 'Musica; pitch', 'Colour', 'Acridines', 'Wild flowers', and so on. But the study of articles on the documentation level reveals that such titles are simple in appearance only. Such a literary subject is in reality a complex aggregate of specific subjects, eahc which is the main theme discussed from one particular aspect.”

Brian Campbell Vickery (1918–2009) British information theorist

Source: Classification and indexing in science (1958), Chapter 1: The need for classification, p. 8; Partly cited in Nigerian Library and Information Science Review (1987). Vol 5-8. p. 44.

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Brian Campbell Vickery (1918–2009) British information theorist

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“Facet analysis consists in an analysis of a subject in its entirety into a certain number of facets or categories of things; within each category, the subject headings enumerated all possess the same relationship vis-&-vis the subject in its entirety.”

Douglas John Foskett (1918–2004)

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“[Vickery in his handbook of procedures for making faceted classifications, writes that organizing a field into facets] can be achieved only by a detailed examination of the literature of the field”

Brian Campbell Vickery (1918–2009) British information theorist

Brian Campbell Vickery (1970) Faceted Classification: A Guide to Construction and Use of Special Schemes. p. 20 as cited in: Claire Beghtol (1986) " Semantic Validity: Concepts of Warrant in Bibliographic Classification Systems http://downloads.alcts.ala.org/lrts/lrtsv30no2.pdf" Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol 30. p. 113.

“The structural tools developed by the profession – hierarchical classifications, facets, thesaural relations, topic maps, the predicates used in ontology – will still be of use, provided that they can in each case pass a test of utility.”

Brian Campbell Vickery (1918–2009) British information theorist

Source: Meeting the challenge (2009), p. xxvii.

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