Semantic Warrant: A Pivotal Concept for Our Field

Through its focus on the semantic, rather than the syntactic axis of bibliographic classification systems, Beghtol's 1986 article on four perspectives of warrant provides us with a set of conceptual tools that can be used to understand, analyze, evaluate and design any knowledge-representation system. In this way warrant, as a concept, joins the ranks of relevance as a pivotal notion, offering a lens for contextualizing the meanings and uses to which ever-evolving classifications are put. With reference to examples, this paper concludes by invoking Beghtol's warrant as a means for systematically evaluating how legacy and emerging classification systems measure up to their mandates.