Page 40 - DLIS405_INFORMATION_STORAGE_AND_RETRIEVAL

Unit 3: Organization in Classification Research

• the development of Ranganathan’s ideas into a practical tool for scientific libraries Notes
• clarification of the role of classification within the wider activity of information retrieval.

Cutter Expansive Classification

The Cutter Expansive Classification system is a library classification system devised by Charles
Ammi Cutter. It uses all letters to designate the top categories of books. This is in contrast to the
Dewey Decimal Classification, which uses only numbers, and the Library of Congress classification,
which uses a mixture of letters and numbers. The system was the basis for the top categories of the
Library of Congress classification.
“No one, perhaps, can remember it all; it cannot be learned, even in part, very quickly; but those
who use the library much will find that they become familiar in time unconsciously with all that
they have much occasion to use.” from How to Get Books by C. A. Cutter, 1882.

Cutter Numbers

One of the features adopted by other systems, including Library of Congress, is the Cutter number.
It is an alphanumeric device to code text so that it can be arranged in alphabetical order using the
fewest characters. It contains one or two initial letters and Arabic numbers, treated as a decimal. To
construct a Cutter number, a cataloguer consults a Cutter table as required by the classification
rules. Although Cutter numbers are mostly used for coding the names of authors, the system can be
used for titles, subjects, geographic areas, and more.

Nippon Decimal Classification

The Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC, also called the Nippon Decimal System) is a system of
library classification developed for mainly Chinese and Japanese language books maintained by
the Japan Library Association since 1956. It is based on the Dewey Decimal System. The system is
based upon using each successive digit to divide into nine divisions with the digit zero used for
those not belonging to any of the divisions.
Main classes
The system is made up of ten categories:
000 General
100 Philosophy
200 History
300 Social sciences
400 Natural sciences
500 Technology and engineering
600 Industry and commerce
700 Arts
800 Language
900 Literature
Description of the classes
000 General
010 Libraries, Library & information science

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