stoutfellow: (Winter)
stoutfellow ([personal profile] stoutfellow) wrote2008-11-01 09:59 am
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Forest and Trees

In a comment to [livejournal.com profile] jrittenhouse, I mentioned that I was considering revising the Keyword system in my library database. I think I've decided how I want to do this.

The method is loosely based on - no, let's say "inspired by" - the Colon Classification system of S. R. Ranganathan. I'll set up a Keywords table, with fields "ID", "Tree", "Parent", and "Keyword". As this suggests, the keywords will be arranged into a number of disjoint trees, and any given work can be assigned words from any appropriate trees.

So, for example, Romeo and Juliet could be assigned the following:
  • Genre > Drama > Tragedy
  • Location > Europe > England
  • Time > Renaissance > 16th Century
  • Setting > Place > Europe > Italy > Mantua
  • Setting > Time > Renaissance
  • Plot > Romance > Doomed Romance
  • Plot > Politics > Vendetta


One form will display the title of a work and a listbox allowing me to navigate the keyword trees and assign them to the works. Another will display a keyword node and list its children and the works that have it as a keyword. The "Works" form will be adjusted to display the keywords for the given work in a subform whose records will name the tree and the final node (so "Genre: Tragedy", "Location: England", "Time: 16th Century", and so on).

Ordinologist, remember?

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