Page 24 - DLIS103_LIBRARY_CLASSIFICATION_AND_CATALOGUING_THEORY

Unit 2: Classification Schemes

II. Weaknesses Notes

(a) In Engineering (620 Class): Certain concepts could not be represented uniquely, without
overlapping. For example, the concept of “building” as a human act that involves design is
spread between 624, 690 and 720. This overlapping always had been a problem with DDC
since its inception in 1876.
(b) In Arts (700 Class): Same kind of overlapping problem is found in the entire 700 class
especially in 780 and 790, which are extremely chaotic.
(c) In Social sciences: social groups are still classed separately from their culture. While the
statistics of a subject are now classed at the subject with 021 appended, no number exists for
the statistics of neo- or preinstall death or indeed, any mortality statistics with respect to a
particular disease. The law schedule has seen major disagreement over whether jurisdic-
tion or type of law should be classed first and, as a result, it allows ‘options’ in its interpre-
tation. According to a comparative study undertaken by Biz/ed between the treatments of
Business and Economics in DDC and UDC, it was proved that DDC treats the subject in the
most suitable way. The recent shift in the subject towards market economies and all is
being included in the DDC schedules.

III. Dewey Decimal System

The Dewey Decimal Classification is stated as follows:
(a) Subject Gateways: Subject gateways are Web-based services that provide access to Internet
resources. These kinds of services often offer hierarchical browse structures based on
subject classification schemes. A wide variety of different classification schemes have been
used to provide browse access to Internet resources. This section will try to look into the
various subject gateways, which make use of the Dewey Decimal Classification System.
(i) ADAM, the Art, Design, Architecture and Media Information Gateway, is a service
being developed to help find useful, quality-assured information on the Internet.
ADAM gives a searchable on-line catalogue describing Internet resources such as
web sites or electronic mailing lists, in much the same way as a library catalogue
describes. The brows able catalogue is arranged according to DDC 21st edition.
(ii) Biz/ed is a subject gateway for business education, which offers an online catalogue
of good quality Internet resources (Like SOSIG Biz/ed also uses the ROADS software
for its gateway). Since its inception in 1996, this catalogue has been using an abridged
version of DDC to classify resources, and to create brows able subject categories. It has
used the business section of DDC to pick out a selection of numbers and classes that
could be used to form the brows able sections on the site.
(iii) BUBL the BUBL Information Services for the UK Higher Education Community gives
subject based information services and covers all the subject areas. Subjects could be
browsed by alphabetical or DDC (Ed. 21) order.

IV. Dewey Decimal Classification
Dewey decimal classification is also called the Dewey Decimal System) is a proprietary system of
library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876. It has been greatly modified and expanded
through 23 major revisions, the most recent in 2011. This system organizes books on library
shelves in a specific and repeatable order that makes it easy to find any book and return it to its
proper place. The system is used in 200,000 libraries in at least 135 countries.

Design

The DDC attempts to organize all knowledge into ten main classes. The ten main classes are each
further subdivided into ten divisions, and each division into ten sections, giving ten main classes,
100 divisions and 1000 sections. DDC's advantage in using decimals for its categories allows it to

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