Classification is defined as the act of organizing and categorizing something based on their similarities. For example, a cat and a dog would be classified as a mammal and an animal. However because cats and dogs are of different species, they would go under different categories.
According to Alex Wright in Glut: Mastering Information Through The Ages, humans have used classification (specifically biological classification) for the past 100,000 years. Without it, they could not have survived for as long as they did because it would be impossible to know what plants are poisonous to consume or what animals are dangerous to approach. As Wright states, “the practice of biological classification ranked as one of humanity’s most essential culture pursuits.”
William Badke in Research Strategies: Finding Your Way through the Information Fog explains the importance of classification when searching for information online. A common method of searching for information is Google because it easily locates data based on the words and letters you type. However, it may be difficult to find exactly you are looking for because of how massive and unspecified the results are.
A superior method of searching for information lies in databases. According to Badke, databases use metadata, defined as data that gives information about other data to locate exactly what is searched. For example, a search of “elderly healthcare survey” on a database will contain more accurate and useful information compared to search engines such as Google. Overall, with databases, students can find research faster and more accurately due to metadatas usage of classification.
