Unlike thesauri, where the hierarchy is typically organised by broader and narrower
concepts, the IMAS taxonomy was designed to facilitate intuitive browsing, whereby
placement of concepts is not strictly related to a broader/narrower relationship.
Figure 2 shows that under the sub-category of “visual arts”, the concept “artist” is not a
narrower form of “visual arts”, unlike “painting” and “photography”. However, as
users may find it more intuitive to browse by artists, the category is made available.
This arrangement borrows largely from faceted classification, and it occurs again in
various parts of the IMAS taxonomy, as shown in Figures 3 and 4, depicting the
“architectural style” and time period facets (for “currency”), respectively.