Applying Faceted Classification to the Personal Organization of Electronic Records: Insights into the User Experience

  • Sabine Mas
  • Dominique Maurel
  • Inge Alberts

Abstract

Despite recent technological advances, most operating systems still support the organization of electronic records according to hierarchical structures or directory trees. Although seemingly intuitive, these organization methods can be limiting as records are classified in one place according to one person’s logic, thereby making it difficult for other users to relate. Furthermore, the inherent boundaries of such a structure necessitate making arbitrary decisions on the specific criteria upon which the classification will be based (e.g., the administrative function or activity, the document type, or its subject) even though a document may have several attributes and require classification in several classes. In this article, an original faceted approach to support electronic records organization is proposed in order to eliminate some of these well-known constraints. Insights into the user experience are now needed to improve the theoretical models and enhance the proposed faceted navigation interface. To that end, this paper discusses a pilot study investigating the pertinence of augmenting traditional hierarchical classification schemes with a faceted classification for records organization in a decentralized, digital environment.

RÉSUMÉ

Malgré les progrès technologiques récents, la plupart des systèmes d’exploitation continuent de classer les documents numériques selon une structure hiérarchique ou arborescente. Bien qu’elles puissent avoir l’air intuitives, ces méthodes de classement peuvent être limitantes puisque les documents sont classés dans un endroit donné selon la logique d’un seul individu, ce qui rend la compréhension difficile pour les autres personnes. De plus, les frontières inhérentes à ce type de structure exigent que les gens prennent des décisions arbitraires à partir des critères spécifiques sur lesquels le classement sera effectué (par exemple : la fonction ou l’activité administrative, le type de document, ou son sujet), même si un document peut avoir plusieurs attributs et pourrait être classé à divers endroits. Dans ce texte, les auteurs proposent une approche originale à facettes pour l’organisation des documents numériques, dans le but d’éliminer certaines de ces contraintes bien connues. Un aperçu de l’expérience des utilisateurs s’avère maintenant nécessaire afin d’améliorer à la fois les modèles théoriques et l’interface de navigation à facettes proposé. À cette fin, les auteurs présentent une étude pilote visant à examiner la pertinence d’ajouter aux schémas de classification traditionnels une classification à facettes pour le classement des documents dans un environnement numérique décentralisé.

Author Biographies

Sabine Mas

Sabine Mas is an assistant professor, École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information, Université de Montréal, since 2008. She holds a BA in History from the Université de Provence, a Master in Archival Science from the Université de Haute-Alsace, a Certificate in Applied Computer Science and a PhD in Information Science from the Université de Montréal. She completed her postdoctoral research project at the Université de Technologie de Troyes. She has been involved in the archival field as an assistant archivist at the Centre Rhénan d’archives et de Recherches économiques at Mulhouse, and at the Université de Montréal as an archivist since 1996. Her current teaching responsibilities consist of four courses in the areas of archival theory, diplomatics, classification, and information science. She has participated in several research projects on the concept of document, “dossier” and genre, and on hierarchical and faceted classification. She is on the editorial board of Documentation et bibliothèques and responsible for the Groupe interdisciplinaire de recherche en archivistique. For further information on her teaching, research projects, publications, and communications, see http://sabinemas.wordpress.com/.

Dominique Maurel

Dominique Maurel is an assistant professor at the École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information, Université de Montréal. She holds a BA and an MA in Literature from Université Laval, as well as a Certificate of Records Management and Archives, and a PhD in Information Science from the Université de Montréal. She completed her postdoctoral research project at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. Her research interests are in the areas of information behaviour, information strategy and information policy in organizations, knowledge management, organizational memory, recordkeeping, and archives. Prior to her PhD, she worked at the Université de Montréal as an archivist, a training officer, and a sessional lecturer, and at Library and Archives Canada as a corporate standards and systems specialist. She has been on the Board of Directors and the Continuing Education Committee of the Association des archivistes du Québec, on the Board of Directors of the Bureau of Canadian Archivists, and on the Canadian Committee on Archival Description, Canadian Council of Archives. For further information on her research projects, publications, and communications, see www.dominiquemaurel.com.

Inge Alberts

Inge Alberts is a Scientific Director at the Cogniva Information Science Research Institute. She holds a License in Modern Literature from the Université de la Sorbonne in Paris, as well as an MSc and a PhD in Information Science from the Université de Montréal. She specializes in personal information management and textual practices, recordkeeping in public administrations, document and genre theory, and organizational semiotics. Inge has participated in several research projects with organizations such as the Université de Montréal, the Government of Canada, the Government of Scotland, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal. She also acted as a consultant with public administrations including the Government of Canada, the Council of Europe, and the International Monetary Fund. Since the completion of her PhD, Inge has combined her past academic research with private sector consultancy. This experience has reinforced her belief in the need to further connect research with the realities of the business community. Inge Alberts has translated this conviction into action designing experiments while publishing various academic and professional papers. In collaboration with the Cogniva Research Institute team, her current research focuses on the development of an innovative application for faceted classification and search.

Archivaria 72 cover
Published
2011-12-02
How to Cite
Mas, Sabine, Dominique Maurel, and Inge Alberts. 2011. “Applying Faceted Classification to the Personal Organization of Electronic Records: Insights into the User Experience”. Archivaria 72 (December), 29-59. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13359.
Issue
Archivaria 72: Special Issue on Electronic Records to Born-Digital Archives: Evolution in Theory and Practice (Fall 2011)
Section
Articles

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