Major library classification
schemes with emphasis on
Dewey Decimal
Classification
Submitted by
SARANYA C C
M.LIB.I.SC 2ND YEAR
INTRODUCTION
• Library Classification is the process of arranging, grouping, coding,
and organizing books and other library materials on shelves or entries
of a catalog, bibliography, and index according to their subject in a
systematic, logical, and helpful order by way of assigning them call
numbers using a library classification system so that users can find
them as quickly and easily as possible.
WHAT IS A CLASSIFICATION
SCHEME ?
The classification number assigned to a document using as library
classification scheme provides an exact location for an item on the
shelves. The cataloger assigns a classification, or call number, in
correlation with the subject headings.
Some of the popular classification systems are:
• Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
• Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)
• Library of Congress Classification (LCC)
• Colon Classification (CC)
• Library of Congress Classification (LCC)
DDC is the most widely used classification system throughout the world. LCC is highly
enumerative by listing all subjects of the past, the present, and the anticipatable future and its
notation is enormously hospitable and expandable.
LCC is also the most continuously revised classification scheme.
WHY DIFFERENT ORGANIZATION USES DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATION SYSYTEMS
• Although all classification systems provide access to information.
• Some systems work better with specific types of information or in specific types
of Libraries.
• Libraries choose a classification system based on three factors
Collection Size
Subjects/ Materials in the Collection
End User
For example, The DDC is a broad classification system.
DDC categories include many subjects that are loosely related, but easy to search.
This system works well in libraries that have general subjects, or specific
Academic subjects.
Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
• (DDC) Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) invented the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
• He published the Dewey Decimal Classification system in 1876.
• In DDC The universe of knowledge is classified into 10 main class
• 000 – Generalities
• 100 – Philosophy and Psychology
• 200 – Religion
• 300 – Social Sciences
• 400 – Language
• 500 – Natural Sciences and Mathematics
• 600 – Technology and Applied Sciences
• 700 – The Arts
• 800 – Literature and Rhetoric
• 900 – Geography and History
Tables in DDC
• Table 1 – Standard subdivisions
• Table 2 – Geographic areas, historical periods, persons
• Table 3 – Subdivisions for individual literatures, for specific literary forms.
Table 3A – Subdivisions for works by or about individual authors
Table 3B – Subdivisions for works by or about more than one author
Table 3C – Notation to be added where instructed in Table 3B and in 808-809
• Table 4 – Subdivisions of individual languages
• Table 5 – Racial, ethnic, national groups
• Table 6 – Languages
• Table 7 – Groups of persons
Arrangement of the DDC
The print version of the latest full edition of the DDC, Edition 23, is composed
of the following major parts in four volumes
• Volume 1
Introduction: A description of the DDC and how to use it
Glossary: Short definitions of terms used in the DDC
Index to the Introduction and Glossary
Manual: A guide to the use of the DDC that is made up primarily of extended
discussions of problem areas in the application of the DDC. Information in the
Manual is arranged by the numbers in the tables and schedules.
Tables: Six numbered tables of notation that can be added to class numbers to
provide greater specificity
• Volume 2
Schedules: The organization of knowledge from 000–599
Volume 2
Schedules: The organization of knowledge from 000–599
• Volume 3
Schedules: The organization of knowledge from 600–999
• Volume 4
Relative Index: An alphabetical list of subjects with the disciplines in
which they are treated sub arranged alphabetically under each entry
• DDC 23 summaries:
https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/dewey/ddc23-summaries.pdf
Universal Decimal Classification
• The UDC was developed in 1895 by Paul Otlet and Henri Fontaine
taking the DDC as its base.
• It is an almost-faceted scheme that involved adopting the almost-
enumerative classification into one that allows synthesis.
• It is a bibliographic classification available in three versions:
Full edition 2,2 1,000 terms
Medium edition. 70,000 (30% of the full edition)
Abridged edition 20,000 (10% of the full edition)
The English edition is published by the British Standards Institution as BS:1000
Colon Classification (CC)
• Designed by S.R. Ranganathan
• Published first in 1933 by the Madras Library Association
• It is a freely faceted classification conforming to the General Theory
of Classification and guided by postulates and principles.
• The major structure of the scheme ' is in its basic subject schedules
and the schedule of isolates belonging to the five fundamental
categories: Personality, Matter, Energy, Space and Time.
• The scheme is not a highly used classification.
• It is used in some special and academic libraries in India. Its complex
mixed notation is a barrier, to its use.
Library of Congress Classification (LC)
• The LC is a purely enumerative classification.
• It consists of 21 classes in 29 parts and 45 volumes and is the bulkiest of
all the classification systems.
• It is based upon literary warrant.
• Main classes are denoted by alphabets.
• Demerits of LC is a bulky scheme and suitable for shelf arrangement
only.
• Being enumerative, it is difficult to accommodate .new subjects at proper
places.
• The only device used by the scheme is the gap device for hospitality.
THANK YOU
