Page 37 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes subjects. An answer to such a query, in whatever form it may finally be presented to suit the
requirements of the reader, will be derived from the subjects embodied in documents. Therefore,
the LIS personnel should become familiar with the subjects they have to deal with predominantly.
The more intensive the knowledge they have of the subjects, the more helpful it will be in
making the information services productive.
Obviously, such knowledge of all the subjects cannot be acquired by one person. A person with
a basic background in a subject – say, at the graduate or post-graduate level – can build upon it
through experience, such as doing research and/or teaching the subject, But the LIS personnel’s
work does not admit of doing research simultaneously (other than in library and information
science). Further, it is not the intensive specialisation in a narrow region of a subject that will be
useful in the work of the LIS personnel. What they require is a broad perspective that is, the
highways and byways of the different subjects with which their clientele are concerned.
In general, the kind of knowledge that the LIS personnel should gain about the subjects may be
specified as follows:
Scope of the subject as a whole;
Its main branches and subdivisions within each branch and the scope of each of them;

The ideas generally falling in relation to the subject and their grouping in relation to the
branches and subdivisions within each branch of the subject;
The interrelation between the component ideas and the relevant characteristics on the
basis of which they can be grouped;
The landmarks in the evolution of the subject: the important contributors and their
respective contributions;
The state-of-the art and trend in each of the different branches of the subject;

The interrelation of a subject with other subjects; and
The technical terminology of each of the different subjects.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
8. Basic Subject denotes a …………………………… division of a main subject.
9. Information ………………………………… products were prepared by subject specialists.

10. The majority of the queries/questions that LIS personnel will have to deal with are about
………………………

2.4 Primary Basic Subject

Primary basic subject is a classification of subjects that covers several fields mentioned in the
UoS and normally it is easy and supportive to start with the formation and listing of a primary
set of basic subjects. A basic subject in this set is a primary basic subject. Primary basic subjects
can be formed by the following modes of formation:
(a) Fusion, Distillation (Kind 1 and Kind 2)
(b) Fusion and Clustering.

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