Page 21 - DLIS103_LIBRARY_CLASSIFICATION_AND_CATALOGUING_THEORY

Library Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes Colon Classification

The task of organizing information packages is an age-old problem in information science.
Ranganathan’s scheme, known as faceted or Colon Classification (CC), allows classification of
documents pertaining to complex and/or multiple subjects. His system was an alternative to the
enumerative classification schemes already in use, such as the Dewey Decimal Classification
(DDC) and the Library of Congress (LC) Classification. Enumerative systems ideally start with a
list of all possible subjects, each with a corresponding number. Often, as in DDC, the subject
divisions are arranged in a hierarchical manner, from most general to most specific. In an
enumerative scheme, each document (book, webpage, etc.) to be catalogued is then assigned one
of the numbers in the scheme. Such a system is limited because it requires “pigeon-holing”
documents into preconceived categories.
On the other hand, the faceted system, while still “hierarchical at its main starting level” is a more
flexible approach. CC is the first example of Analytico-synthetic “scheme in the complete sense”.
The term “analytico-synthetic” describes the process CC uses to classify an information package.
The subject matter is analyzed into categories or facets, and a number, based upon Ranganathans
schedules, is synthesized for each facet that applies. Such a scheme is advantageous because it
allows for classifying a document or information package based upon multiple aspects of its
subject matter. That is, an item can be in multiple categories, and can have multiple values per
category. Multiple responses to the question, “what is this information package about?”are
accommodated within the scheme.

Subject Analysis

Ranganathan set forth five categories or facets for determining subject content or “aboutness”:
time, space, energy, matter, and personality. Subject analysis in CC consists of evaluating
information packages to determine a value or values in one or more of these categories. In a useful
example, Ranganathan (1933) explains metaphorically how items are arranged in his scheme
according to facets.
We shall imagine all the “Literature” books divided according to their languages and we shall
imagine a separate building for the literature of each Language. A reader, interested, say, in
English literature will have to go into the “English” building, so to speak. On entering the building
he will find that all Poetry is put in one room, that all Drama is put in another room, all Fiction put
in a third room, and so on. Let us assume that the reader is interested in Drama and that he enters
the “Drama” room. There we may imagine that he will find several cupboardseach devoted to a
Dramatist. If the cupboard, pertaining to any Dramatist, is opened, he will find that each shelf is
devoted to one work of the Dramatist. In that shelf all the editions of that work and all the
criticisms of that work will be found arranged in a convenient order.

Notation System
Ranganathan recognized that the best way to arrange books in a library was relationally, i.e. the
position of a given item is relative to other items, not a fixed position. The system of notation that
Ranganathan created to express the faceted classification idea includes various punctuation marks
linking the numeric designations for each facet. It includes colons, leading to its name. In CC, each
call number consists of a class number and book number.
The class number starts with a subject digit, representing the “main division of knowledge into
which the book falls”. Acknowledging that the ten subject divisions, as in DDC, are too few, CC
has twenty-seven divisions. The class number assigned to an item is its “ultimate class” or the
most specific possibility. Other parts of the class number that may be used include notations for
common subdivisions, such as bibliographies, statistics, collected works, and the like. In addition,
each of the twenty-seven subject divisions has more specific subdivisions. The class number may
also include representations of further detail, such as geographical or chronological divisions.

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