Page 31 - DLIS104_MANAGEMENT OF LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION CENTRES

Management of Libraries and Information Centres

Notes Classification systems in libraries generally play two roles. Firstly, they facilitate subject access by
allowing the user to find out what works or documents the library has on a certain subject.
Secondly, they provide a known location for the information source to be located. Until the 19th
century, most libraries had closed stacks, so the library classification only served to organize the
subject catalog. In the 20th century, libraries opened their stacks to the public and started to shelve
the library material itself according to some library classification to simplify subject browsing.
Some classification systems are more suitable for aiding subject access, rather than for shelf location.
For example, UDC which uses a complicated notation including plus, colons are more difficult to
use for the purpose of shelf arrangement but are more expressive compared to DDC in terms of
showing relationships between subjects. Similarly faceted classification schemes are more difficult
to use for shelf arrangement, unless the user has knowledge of the citation order.
Depending on the size of the library collection, some libraries might use classification systems
solely for one purpose or the other. In extreme cases a public library with a small collection might
just use a classification system for location of resources but might not use a complicated subject
classification system. Instead all resources might just be put into a couple of wide classes. This is
known as a “mark and park” classification method, more formally called reader interest classification.

Types
There are many standard systems of library classification in use, and many more have been
proposed over the years. However in general, Classification systems can be divided into three
types depending on how they are used.
Universal schemes covering all subjects. Examples include Dewey Decimal Classification,
Universal Decimal Classification and Library of Congress Classification.
Specific classification schemes for particular subjects or types of materials. Examples
include Icon class, British Catalogue of Music Classification, and Dickinson classification,
or the NLM Classification for medicine.
National schemes specially created for certain countries. An example is the Swedish
library classification system, SAB.

Task Define the different types of classification system.

In terms of functionality, classification systems are often described as

Enumerative: produce an alphabetical list of subject headings, assign numbers to each
heading in alphabetical order

Library classification is the technical process
Hierarchical: divides subjects hierarchically, from most general to most specific
Faceted or analytic-synthetic: divides subjects into mutually exclusive orthogonal facets.
There are few completely enumerative systems or faceted systems, most systems are a blend but
favoring one type or the other. The most common classification systems, LCC and DDC, are
essentially enumerative, though with some hierarchical and faceted elements (more so for DDC),
especially at the broadest and most general level. The first true faceted system was the Colon
classification of S. R. Ranganathan.

Universal classification systems used in the English-speaking world

Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)

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