science

Social History and Industrial Classification

Social History and Industrial Classification is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Social History and Industrial Classification rather than just read about it. In short: Social History and Industrial Classification (SHIC) is a classification system used by many British museums for social history and industrial collections. It was first published in 1983.

Key takeaways

Social History and Industrial Classification belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Social History and Industrial Classification to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Social History and Industrial Classification from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Social History and Industrial Classification (SHIC) is a classification system used by many British museums for social history and industrial collections. It was first published in 1983.

Purpose SHIC classifies materials (books, objects, recordings etc.) by their interaction with the people who used them. For example, a carpenter's hammer is classified with other tools of the carpenter, and not with a blacksmith's hammer. In contrast other classification systems, for example the Dewey Decimal Classification, might class all hammers together and close to the classification for other percussive tools. The specialist subject network, Social History Curator's Group (SHCG), obtained funding in 2012 to develop an on-line version, now on their website http://www.shcg.org.uk/

Scheme Materials are classified under four major category numbers:

Community life Domestic and family life Personal life Working life Further classification within a category is by the use of further numbers after the decimal point. It is permissible to assign more than one classification in cases where the object had more than one use.

References

Social history and industrial classification (SHIC), a subject classification for museum collections, University of Sheffield, 1983

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Social History and Industrial Classification

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Social History and Industrial Classification claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Social History and Industrial Classification before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Social History and Industrial Classification ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Social History and Industrial Classification

In research: Social History and Industrial Classification appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Social History and Industrial Classification in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Social History and Industrial Classification is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Industrial history, Knowledge representation, Library cataloging and classification, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Social History and Industrial Classification outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Social History and Industrial Classification in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Social History and Industrial Classification means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Social History and Industrial Classification out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Social History and Industrial Classification in simple terms?

Social History and Industrial Classification (SHIC) is a classification system used by many British museums for social history and industrial collections. It was first published in 1983.

Why does Social History and Industrial Classification matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Social History and Industrial Classification?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Social History and Industrial Classification.