Page 27 - DLIS103_LIBRARY_CLASSIFICATION_AND_CATALOGUING_THEORY

Library Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes to adapt to changing fields of knowledge. The Library of Congress Classification system was
developed based mainly on the idea of literary warrant; classes were added (by individual experts
in each area) only when needed for works owned by the Library of Congress. As a result, while the
Library of Congress Classification system was able to incorporate changes and additions of new
branches of knowledge, particularly in the fields of engineering and computer science (the greater
hospitability of the Library of Congress Classification was also a factor), DDC has been criticized
for being inadequate in covering those areas. It is asserted that, as a result, most major academic
libraries in the US do not use the DDC because the classification of works in those areas is not
specific enough, although there are other reasons that may truly be more weighty, such as the
much lower expense of using a unique "pre-packaged" catalog number instead of having highly
skilled staff members engaging in the time-consuming development of catalog numbers.
The Library of Congress Classification system is not without problems. For example, it is highly
US-centric because of the nature of the system, and it has been translated into far fewer languages
than DDC and UDC.

2.4 Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)

The Universal Decimal Classification is a system of library classification developed by the Belgian
bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine at the end of the 19th century. It is based on the
Dewey decimal classification, but uses auxiliary signs to indicate various special aspects of a
subject and relationships between subjects. It thus contains a significant faceted or analytic-synthetic
element, and is used especially in specialist libraries. UDC has been modified and extended
through the years to cope with the increasing output in all disciplines of human knowledge, and
is still under continuous review to take account of new developments. The documents classified by
UDC may be in any form.
They will often be literature, i.e., written documents, but may also be in other media such as films,
video and sound recordings, illustrations, maps, and regalia such as museum pieces. UDC
classifications use Arabic numerals and are based on the decimal system. Every number is thought
of as a decimal fraction with the initial decimal point omitted, which determines filing order. For
ease of reading, a UDC identifier is usually punctuated after every third digit. Thus, after 61
“Medical sciences” come the subdivisions 611 to 619; less than 611 “Anatomy” come its subdivisions
611.1 to 611.9; less than 611.1 come all of its subdivisions before 611.2 occurs, and so on; after 619
comes 620. An advantage of this system is that it is infinitely extensible, and when new subdivisions
are introduced, they need not disturb the existing allocation of numbers.

Notes Universal Decimal Classification owes its origin to Dewey Decimal Classification
(DDC). As noted in the introduction to UDC International Medium Edition, DDC had, even
in the 19th century, “played an important part in establishing the norm of a systematic code
denoting the subject as a primary means of arranging and retrieving literature in libraries”.
Due to this virtue of DDC, it was natural for the scheme to attract the attention of a renowned
Belgian bibliographer, Paul Otlet. This was in 1895 when Otlet, in collaboration with Henri La
Fontaine, was working on a Universal Bibliography under the auspices of Institute International
de Bibliography in Brussels. The projected compilation with which the two Belgian bibliographers
were busy was called Universal Bibliographic Repertory, a comprehensive classified index to all
published information.
Otlet was in search of a means for arranging the entries of the planned Universal Bibliography and
he found the DDC to be most useful for the purpose. He, therefore, obtained permission from
Melvil Dewey to translate his classification into French. Otlet and La Fontaine were impressed by
the following merits of DDC:
1. It was, a classification of human knowledge;
2. It was an international language of numbers; and

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