Is classification necessary after Google?

This presentation considers the nature of classification and the challenges that bibliographical faces in the digital age both in library practice and in information retrieval theory. It considers fundamental questions such as “how do establish that A is a kind of X?” and “how do we distinguish good from bad classifications?” The new trend of evidence based practice (EBP) is seen as an argument why classification is still necessary for scientific documentation, and the basic epistemological positions (empiricism, rationalism, historicism and pragmatism) is briefly considered in relation to classification.