Page 261 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes support the classified part of the catalogue. It fulfils all the functions of a dictionary catalogue as
well as classified part.
Despite all these features of a classified catalogue, it has its own merits and demerits.

Merits of Alphabetical Index

It provides a logical subject-wise guide to the materials available in a library or it brings
together in one place all the entries relevant to a particular subject with all its related
subjects.

The arrangement of entries in the catalogue reflects the arrangements of documents on the
shelves of the library.

Subjects without inconvenience can bring out the printed versions of the catalogues in
parts.
Readers will find all the material of their interest from the one catalogue at one place.
The most significant demerit of a classified catalogue this is that the reader must have some
knowledge of the classification scheme used for the arrangement of entries while consulting the
catalogue.

With all these deficiencies, the classified catalogue has got its place in many libraries, especially
academic, research, and special libraries. The deficiencies can be overcome by developing a
good alphabetical index and by using a good classification system.

Dictionary vs Classified Catalogue

The provision of the author/title catalogue form in conjunction with two of the subject catalogue
forms (alphabetico-direct in the one case and classified in the other) produces the two “classical”
inner forms of full library catalogue. These are as follows:
The dictionary catalogue, which inter-files its author/title headings, specific verbal subject
headings, and connective references in one alphabetical sequence.

The classified catalogue, in which the principle component is the classified file of subject
entries, complemented by alphabetically arranged indexes of subjects, authors, and titles.
These indexes may be arranged in a single, or in separate, alphabetical sequence, and the
author/title index may be full of author/title catalogue or may be more restricted in
bibliographic detail than the full entry in the classified file. Strictly speaking, it is a subject
catalogue, in which entries are arranged according to some scheme of classification.
Thus among all the inner forms of a library catalogue, the classified and dictionary catalogues
are the most popular forms of the catalogue existing so far. The comparative view of each with
reference to the features or aspects of both the types is given below in a tabular form.

Alphabetico-classified Catalogue

It is also a kind of subject catalogue and attempts to incorporate the advantages of both the
dictionary and the classified catalogues. It may be considered as a combination or mixture of the
best points associated with the dictionary and the classified catalogues.

Foskett states that “recognition of both the need for expressing certain relationships and difficulty
of doing systematically in the dictionary index led to the development of the alphabetico-
classed system in which the main scheme of arrangement is alphabetic; the specific sub-division
of major subjects may be grouped together under the heading of that subject.”

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