Library Classification - Types

Types

There are many standard systems of library classification in use, and many more have been proposed over the years. However in general, classification systems can be divided into three types depending on how they are used:

  • Universal schemes covering all subjects. Examples include Dewey Decimal Classification, Universal Decimal Classification and Library of Congress Classification
  • Specific classification schemes for particular subjects or types of materials. Examples include Iconclass, British Catalogue of Music Classification, and Dickinson classification, or the NLM Classification for medicine.
  • National schemes specially created for certain countries. An example is the Swedish library classification system, SAB (Sveriges Allmänna Biblioteksförening).

In terms of functionality, classification systems are often described as:

  • enumerative: subject headings are listed alphabetically, with numbers assigned to each heading in alphabetical order.
  • hierarchical: subjects are divided hierarchically, from most general to most specific.
  • faceted or analytico-synthetic: subjects are divided into mutually exclusive orthogonal facets.

There are few completely enumerative systems or faceted systems; most systems are a blend but favouring one type or the other. The most common classification systems, LCC and DDC, are essentially enumerative, though with some hierarchical and faceted elements (more so for DDC), especially at the broadest and most general level. The first true faceted system was the Colon classification of S. R. Ranganathan.

Read more about this topic:  Library Classification

Famous quotes containing the word types:

    “Our children evaluate themselves based on the opinions we have of them. When we use harsh words, biting comments, and a sarcastic tone of voice, we plant the seeds of self-doubt in their developing minds.... Children who receive a steady diet of these types of messages end up feeling powerless, inadequate, and unimportant. They start to believe that they are bad, and that they can never do enough.”
    —Stephanie Martson (20th century)

    “... there are two types of happiness and I have chosen that of the murderers. For I am happy. There was a time when I thought I had reached the limit of distress. Beyond that limit, there is a sterile and magnificent happiness.”
    —Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    “As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn’t make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting—the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.”
    —Saul Bellow (b. 1915)