ABSTRACT
The catalogue and index give a structure to the asset repository. The index is the primary means to retrieve assets from the repository. Without the index, the repository is just another file server. Scientists have always wanted to catalogue as part of their understanding of the natural world. This desire reached a peak during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as collectors scoured the world for new plants, butterflies, and rocks. Anything that could be packaged and returned home was carefully classified and mounted in glass and mahogany display cases. Museums were no longer just collections of fine art, paintings, and sculpture, but encompassed the breadth of human understanding. The science of classifying this myriad of newly discovered species was called taxonomy. To aid the classification hierarchies were developed.
