Page 65 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes numbers. However, many other classification schemes, some of which are completely unrelated,
also use colons and other punctuation in various functions. They should not be confused with
Colon classification.

Example: As an example, the subject “research in the cure of tuberculosis of lungs by
x-ray conducted in India in 1950” results in a call number
L, 45; 421: 6; 253: f.44’N5
The components of this call number represent

Medicine, Lungs; Tuberculosis: Treatment; X-ray: Research. India’1950
In 1933 Indian librarian Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan introduced the Colon Classification
system, which classifies all knowledge into broad, fundamental concepts. The Colon system
then divides these concepts into several distinguishing characteristics, which Ranganathan called
facets. The classification system uses colons (:) to distinguish between the various facets in a
single notation and the name “Colon Classification system” is derived from its use in its notation
scheme.

In United States, most research and academic libraries use Library of Congress Classification,
while most schools and public libraries use Dewey Decimal Classification. The UDC system is
widely used in Europe, Latin America, Russia and Japan. Although the use of the Colon
Classification system is limited to a few Indian libraries, Ranganathan’s concept of facet analysis
in classifying knowledge has been widely recognized. Some of its key concepts have been
adopted by subsequent editions of the DDC or UDC, among others.

4.1.1 A Brief History of Colon Classification

Dr. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan, who lived from 1892 until 1972, was a renowned thinker
and innovator in the world of library and information science. He introduced one of his greatest
contributions to the field, the Colon Classification scheme, in 1933. This was published in two
slim volumes. One volume held the rules of using the scheme and the other held the schedules
needed to use it. Ranganathan, a mathematician by education, first thought of the scheme while
studying in London, soon after his appointment as the first official Librarian at the Madras
University Library in 1924. He studied at the London School for Librarianship and was greatly
influenced by W.C. Berwick Sayers, a professor there.
He was often frustrated by the limitations of library classification schemes that he studied,
which included the Library of Congress scheme and Dewey Decimal Classification. He felt that
the schemes contained flaws because they were developed in order to organize existing
collections. He felt there was a need to create a scheme that would be able to reflect forthcoming
titles with different subject matter than had been seen in the libraries and to expand to new areas
of knowledge over time. His Colon Classification scheme was developed to fill this need.
He claimed that he was partly inspired by the demonstration of a child’s toy set, called a
Meccano set, at a Selfridge’s department store in London. The Meccano set was similar to an
Erector Set, containing blocks, loops, string, and other items that could be used to build many
different structures.
As Ranganathan travelled back to India after his studies, he worked on the scheme that would
eventually become Colon Classification. He tested it on the ship’s library. He then tested it on
the Madras University Library and determined that it was ready to be published. The name
comes from the use of the colon as the character to differentiate the pieces of the Class Number,
which is comparable to a Dewey number. Colon Classification includes an additional guide for
creating what it calls a Book Number.

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