Classifying Household Goods

Classification is something that we do all of the time, but it’s especially critical for understanding how archives are constructed and, in turn, the ways in which people access the material that is stored in them. The goal of this exercise is to help think critically about how and why we describe, organize, and categorize information in certain ways.

Imagine you have just moved into a new apartment. You go shopping and return with several bags filled with the following items:

In small groups:

• Come up with a classification scheme for these items based on how you would store these items in your apartment
• Group individual items together under each category
• Explain your reasoning behind this classification scheme (ie. why did you choose these categories?)

As a whole class:

• Elect one volunteer from each group to share your classification scheme for household items and your reasoning behind it.
• What differences do you notice between the different groups in how they organized and categorized these household items? What different strategies did they use?
• How would this exercise get applied to other kinds of data classification?

Instructor Note:

The general idea behind this exercise is to demonstrate to students how even something seemingly straightforward like household goods can be categorized and organized under quite different systems. Some groups might choose to organize in only general terms (what room in the apartment) whereas others will go into more detail - ex. kitchen items further differentiated by refrigerator vs. pantry. Some of these items are intentionally vague or could have multiple meanings and uses (ex. laundry detergent vs. dishwasher detergent, bell peppers vs. chili peppers, dish towels vs. bath towels). The big takeaway is that all classification involves decisions and interpretations - even seemingly simple ones.