The Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC) is originally for materials conceived by Melvil Dewey in 1873. This was first published in 1876. Today, this is
published both in printed and electronic formats. The latter is published and distributed by Online Computer Library Center, (OCLC) Inc.
• Notation - Notation in DDC provides a universal language to identify the class within which the subject belongs and is expressed in Arabic numerals. The first number in the three-digit number (preceding the decimal point) represents the main class; the second digit represents the division; and the third digit indicates the section.
o Example: Class number 532
5 represents the main class which is science 3 stands for the division that is physics 2 stands for the section gas mechanics
A decimal point follows the third digit in a class number, after which division by ten continues to the specific degree of classification needed.
The decimal point is used as a "psychological pause" to break the monotony of numerical digits and to ease the transcription and copying of the class number.
• Classes - Basic classes are organized by discipline or fields of study. At the broadest level, DDC is divided into ten main classes, which together cover the entire world of knowledge. Each main class is further divided into ten divisions, and each division is subdivides more into ten sections.
The following table lists the ten main classes in the DDC.
o 000 Computer science, information & general works o 100 Philosophy & psychology
o 200 Religion o 300 Social sciences o 400 Language o 500 Science o 600 Technology o 700 Arts & recreation o 800 Literature
o 900 History & geography
• Notes - Notes are added instructions or information for the effective use of DDC. They are in various forms.
1. Definition notes - These indicate the meaning of the term in the heading.
• Example: 004.7 Peripherals
Input, output, storage devices that work in a computer nut are not part of the central processing unit or internal storage.
2. Scope notes - These notes indicate whether the meaning of the number is narrower or broader than is apparent from the heading.
• Example: 700 The arts Fine and decorative arts
Description, critical appraisal, techniques, procedures, apparatus, equipment, materials of the fine, decorative, literary, performing, recreational arts
3. Number-built notes - These identify and explain the source of built numbers included in the schedules and tables.
• Example: 353.132 63 Foreign service
Numbers built according to instructions under 352-354.
Class here consular and diplomatic services.
4. Former heading notes - These are given only when a heading has been altered to such a degree that the new heading bears little or no resemblance to the old.
• Example: -983.2 Quechuan (Kechuan) and Aymaran languages
Former heading: Andean languages
5. Variant name notes - These are used for synonyms and near synonyms.
• Example: 332.32 Savings and loan association
Variant names: Building and loan associations, home loan associations, mortgage institutions
6. Class-here notes - These notes list major topics in a class which may be broader or narrower than the heading, , overlap it, or define in another way of looking at essentially the same material.
• Example: 371.192 Parent-school relations
Class here parent participations in schools; comprehensive works on parent-teacher relations..
7. Including notes - These identify topics that have "standing rooms" in the number where the note is found.
• Example: 374.22 Groups in adult education
Including discussion, reading, self-help, special interest, study groups.
8. Class-elsewhere notes - These notes lead the classifier to interrelated topics, or distinguish among numbers in the same notational hierarchy.
• Example: 791.43 Motion pictures
Class photographic aspects of motion pictures in 778.53; class made-for-TV movies, videotapes of motion pictures in 791.45.
9. Cross reference notes - These are of two types. See reference lead from a stated or implied comprehensive number for a concept to the component (subordinate parts of the concept.
• Example: 577.7 Marine ecology
Class here saltwater ecology. slat lake ecology, see 577.639;
For saltwater wetland and seashore ecology, see 577.69.
See also reference lead the classifier to related topics.
• Example: 584.3 Lilidae Class here Liliales, Lilies For Orchidales, see 584.4..
See also 583.29 for water lilies.
10. Discontinued notes - Such notes indicate that all or part of the contents of a number have been moved to a more general number in the same hierarchy, or have been dropped entirely.
• Example: [516.361] Local and intrinsic differential geometry Number discontinued
11. Relocation notes - These state that all or part of the contents have been moved in a different number.
• Example: [370.19] Sociology of education Sociology of education relocated to 306.43.
12. Do-not-use notes - These notes instruct the classifier not to use all or part of the regular standard subdivision notation or an add-table provision, in favor of a special or standard subdivisions at a broader number.
• Example: [374.809] Historical, geographic, person treatment Do not use class 374.9.
37.2 Library of Congress Classification System
The Library of Congress Classification System (LCCS) was developed by J. C. M.
Hanson, and Charles Martel, using Cutter's Expansive Classification as basis.
• Notation - LCCS uses a mixed notation of letters and Arabic numerals to construct call numbers. The notation in LCCS uses a three-element pattern:
o first element - single capital letters for main classes (e.g. H for Social Science), with one or two capital letters for their subclasses (e.g. HA for Statistics)
o second element - Arabic integers from 1 to 9999 for subdivisions, and,
o third element - Cutter numbers for individual books.
• In many schedules, the single letter stands for the class as a whole, as well as for its subclass (e.g. class N for Fine Arts; subclass N for Visual arts: General).
• The use of the second and third elements were allowed to accommodate expansion. The divisions are represented by Arabic integers from 1 to 9999 with possible decimal extensions, and/or with further indicated by Cutter numbers.
o Example: Z [One capital letter]
8587 [Integer from 1 to 9999]
.8 [Decimal extension]
.A46 [Book number]
1991
• Classes, subclasses, and divisions - LCCS has twenty-one (21) main classes displayed on over (40) separately published schedules. The organization of divisions within a class, subclass, or subject originally followed a pattern known as Martel's seven points:
o general form subdivisions o theory philosophy o history
o treatises and general works o law regulation/state relations o study and teaching
o special subjects and subdivision of subjects
• The following table lists the main classes in the LCCS, as indicated below by capital letters.
o A -- General Works
o B -- Philosophy. Psychology. Religion o C -- Auxiliary Sciences Of History
o D -- World History And History Of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Etc.
o E -- History Of The Americas o F -- History Of The Americas
o G -- Geography. Anthropology. Recreation o H -- Social Sciences
o J -- Political Science o K -- Law
o L -- Education
o M -- Music And Books On Music o N -- Fine Arts
o P -- Language And Literature o Q -- Science
o R -- Medicine o S -- Agriculture o T -- Technology o U -- Military Science o V -- Naval Science
o Z -- Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources (General)
• Notes - Similarly, LCCS includes various forms of notes, which are added instructions or information for the effective use of the classification scheme.
1. Scope notes - These notes explain the type of works to be classified at a particular subject. They may refer the classifier elsewhere in the schedule or in another schedule.
§ Example: QH 540 Ecology
Class here works on general ecology and general animal ecology.
2. Including notes - These notes list topics which are included within a subject.
§ Example: SF 101 Animal culture
Brands and branding, and other means of identifying, including cattle marks and earmarks.
3. See notes - These notes refer the classifier to a number elsewhere in the schedule, often as a result of reclassification decision.
§ Example: QH 540 Ecology
For ecology of a particular topographic area, See GF 101 +
In some instances, a number in parenthesis indicates that the number is no longer in use and a see reference is given.
§ Example: TH 6518 Plumbing and pipefitting (6525) Rural water domestic supply, see TD 927
4. Confer notes (Cf.) - These notes indicate that related topics are classified elsewhere in the schedules.
§ Example: QH 540 Ecology
Cf. HX 550 E 25 Communism and ecology Cf. QH 546 Ecological genetics
5. Apply at table notes - These notes refer the classifier to a table with subdivision instructions, so that the instruction is not repeated on the same page or several times over a couple of pages.
§ Example: NK 3650.5 A-Z
By region or country, A-Z Apply table at NK 3649.35 A-Z 37.3 Other Classification Schemes
There are other classification schemes used in some libraries. These are less prominent than DDC and LCCS.
1. Cutter's Expansive Classification - The Cutter Expansive Classification system is a library classification system devised by Charles Ammi Cutter. It uses all letters rather than digits such as Dewey Decimal Classification, or a mixture of digits such as Library of Congress classification). This has been called one of the most logical and scholarly of American classifications. Its outline served as a basis for the Library of Congress classification, which also took over some of its features. It did not catch on as did Dewey's system because Cutter died before it was completely finished, making no provision for the kind of development necessary as the bounds of knowledge expanded and scholarly emphases changed throughout the 20th century.
Like the LC classification system, texts are organized by subject. Users of Cutter's Expansive Classification, however, will find the subject headings more general than those of the LC system. Most call numbers in the Cutter classification follow conventions offering clues to the book's subject. The first line represents the subject, the second the author (and perhaps title), the third and fourth dates of editions, indications of translations, and critical works on particular books or authors. All numbers in the Cutter system are (or should be) shelved as if in decimal order. Size of volumes is indicated by points (.), pluses (+), or slashes (/ or //).
For some subjects a numerical geographical subdivision follows the classification letters on the first line. The number 83 stands for the United States-hence, F83 is U.S. history, G83 U.S. travel, JU83 U.S. politics, WP83 U.S. painting. Geographical
numbers are often further expanded decimally to represent more specific areas, sometimes followed by a capital letter indicating a particular city.
The second line usually represents the author's name by a capital letter plus one or more numbers arranged decimally. This may be followed by the first letter or letters of the title in lower-case, and/or sometimes the letters a,b,c indicating other printings of the same title. When appropriate, the second line may begin with a 'form' number-e.g., 1 stands for history and criticism of a subject, 2 for a bibliography, 5 for a dictionary, 6 for an atlas or maps, 7 for a periodical, 8 for a society or university publication, 9 for a collection of works by different authors.
On the third line a capital Y indicates a work about the author or book represented by the first two lines, and a capital E (for English-other letters are used for other languages) indicates a translation into English. If both criticism and translation apply to a single title, the number expands into four lines.
2. Brown's Subject Classification - This classification system was designed by James Duff Brown (1862-1914), It had three (3) editions: 1906, 1914, 1939 (revised by Brown's nephew after his death). This classification scheme was well-received in both the U.K. and the U.S. This was originally designed for shelf browsing in an open stack public library.
Brown's Subject Classification was established in the general order of
• Matter and Force (Generalia and Physical Sciences)
• Life (Biology, Ethnology, Medicine, Economic Biology, Domestic Arts)
• Mind (Philosophy, Religion, Political and Social Science)
• Record (Language, Literature, Literary forms, History, Geography, Biography)
Brown advocated the principle of "one-place" classification - "concrete" subjects should have only one place, qualified by "standpoints". For example, "Rose" could be qualified by its standpoints (i.e. Biological, Botanical, Horticultural, Historical, Geographical, Ethical, Decorative, Legal, Emblematical, Bibliographical, Poetical, Musical, Sociological, and so on to any extent).
This idea carried out in the classification by three kinds of notational synthesis:
1. Intra-class synthesis - synthesis from two sections of the same main class achieved by + and omission of the main class letter.
• Example: Cats and dogs = F952 + F918 = F952 + 918 There is no preferred citation order.
2. Inter-class synthesis - synthesis from two main classes by + and retention of the main class letter
• Example: Logic and rhetoric = A300 + M170 Gambling in dog racing = L933 + F944
• Such are called "composite subjects" or "composite books". In this notational synthesis, there is no preferred citation order.
3. Categorical table - a table of forms, phases, standpoints, qualifications, etc., which apply more or less to every subject or subdivision of a subject; it is in two parts
• Notational order (e.g., .25 Diaries)
• Alphabetical order (e.g., Art .116)
• Numerical notation preceded by a dot, which is not a decimal (.). There is no synthesis within the Categorical Table. Categorical Table numbers are added to any notation from the schedules.
o Examples: Economics of universities = A180.760 Universities = A180 [schedules]
Economics = .760 [Categorical Table]
Economics of musical competitions = C798.760 Musical competitions = C798 [schedules]
Economics = .760 [Categorical Table]
These synthetic notations provided more flexibility than any classification of its time (except UDC, which had the same auxiliary tables for synthesis it has now).
3. Colon Classification - This classification system was developed by S. R.
Ranganathan, although Ranganathan was not the inventor of facet analysis. He is credited as the first to "systematize and formalize the theory". It is said that his idea of a faceted classification scheme is inspired by a Lego-type toy set. Seeing that the salesperson can build different toys just by combining the same pieces in a different way, he builds his classification scheme by this analogy.
The Colon Classification, just as other classification schemes, starts with a number of main classes (42), which represent the fields of knowledge. Each class is then analyzed and broken down into its basic elements, grouped together by common attributes, called facets. Upon examining all the facets, Ranganthan notices that there are five main groups into which the facets fall, and he calls these the fundamental categories, represented by the mnemonic PMEST in an order of decreasing concreteness.
• Personality
- can be understood as the primary facet.
- the most prominent attribute
• Matter
- physical material
• Energy - action
• Space
- location
• Time
- time period
There are also facets that are common to all the classes. These are called common isolates. Examples include form and language. The same facet can be used more than once.
Notations, such as numbers and letters, are used to represent the facets, while punctuation marks are used to indicate the nature and type of the following facets.
The classifier's job, therefore, is to combine the available terms that are appropriate in describing the information package in hand.
Let us consider the construction of a notation using the Ranganathan's Colon Classification. Suppose we have a book that is about "research in the cure of tuberculosis of lungs by x-ray conducted in India in 1950" (Glassel, 1998). The call number will be as follows:
L,45;421:6;253:f.44'N5 The notations represent
[Medicine,Lungs;Tuberculosis:Treatment;X-ray:Research.India'1950]
It is amazing how the notation covers all the significant aspects of the subject of the item. Such a classification scheme is considered to be "hospitable" to all sorts of complex topics. It is therefore a "dynamic" scheme.