Page 22 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Unit 1: Concept of Library Classification

Notes

Case Study UDC and Its Use: A Case Study of Libraries and
Information Centres in Delhi

ibrary classifications are fundamental tools for organizing and exploring library
collections, helping in collection browsing, items location and in the retrieval of
Lrelevant documents. UDC is a general knowledge scheme designed and developed
by Paul Outlet (1869-1944) and Henri La Fontaine (1854-1943), first published in French in
1904-1907, which is still regularly maintained to keep pace with the advances of knowledge.
UDC is well known in India and is often used in science and technology libraries.
Delhi, the capital of India, is known for having good libraries, documentation centres,
information/library networks and LIS schools. Nowadays, there are 14 university (or the
equivalent) libraries, more than 100 college libraries, a network of over 296 academic,
special and public libraries and 2,888 school libraries. In Delhi there are also several other
libraries of historical/national significance such as the National Science Library, of
NISCAIR, the National Medical Library, the National Agricultural Library, of IARI, the
National Archives Library, national documentation centres such as the DESIDOC and
NASSDOC, the Library of National Museum, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library,
the Parliament Library and the Libraries of national councils such as the ICAR, ICMR,
CSIR, AICTE, NCTE, RCI, DCI, ICSSR, ICHR, ICCR, ICPR, DCE, PCI, NCERT, SCERT, MCI,
BCI, CCH and CCIM (these professional councils are responsible for the recognition of
courses, promotion of professional institutions, providing grants to teaching, research
and training in their respective fields, etc.).
DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) was established in 1958 from
the merging of the former Technical Development Establishments (TDEs) of the Indian
Army and the Directorate of Technical Development & Production (DTDP) with the Defence
Science Organisation (DSO). DRDO was then a small organization with 10 establishments/
laboratories. Over the years, it has grown multi-directionally in terms of the variety of
subject disciplines, number of laboratories, achievements and stature.
Today, the DRDO is a network of 51 laboratories which are deeply engaged in developing
defence technologies covering various disciplines, like aeronautics, armaments, electronics,
combat vehicles, engineering systems, instrumentation, missiles, advanced computing
and simulation, special materials, naval systems, life sciences, training, information
systems and agriculture. Presently, the organisation is backed by over 5000 scientists and
about 25,000 other scientific, technical and supporting personnel. Several major projects
for the development of missiles, armaments, light combat aircrafts, radars, electronic
warfare systems etc. are on hand and significant achievements have already been made in
several such technologies.
As it transpires from the statements above, DRDO has a great significance in the growth
and development of technological research in the field of defence science and technology.
The Defence Science Laboratory (now known as LASTEC) which is situated in Delhi is
considered the mother of the Defence establishments in India. DRDO libraries are usually
known by ‘Technical Information Centres (TIC)’ and every lab/establishment has its own
TIC. To meet the information needs of the Indian defence scientists and technocrats working
in the DRDO laboratories, DRDO established a national documentation centre known as
Defence Scientific Information & Documentation Center (DESIDOC). The UDC has a special
role within TICs of the DRDO, as the majority of them are using UDC for classifying and
arranging documents. The current status of the UDC use in DRDO is given in Table 1.

Contd....

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 17