Classification in Theory and Practice

Susan Batley

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781780634661
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Gestione dell'informazione
• Index: Business

Following on from the first edition of this book, the second edition fills the gap between more complex theoretical texts and those books with a purely practical approach. The book looks at major library classification schemes in use in Europe, UK and the USA, and includes practical exercises to demonstrate their application. Importantly, classifying electronic resources is also discussed. Classification in Theory and Practice aims to demystify a very complex subject, and to provide a sound theoretical underpinning, together with practical advice and development of practical skills. Chapters concentrate purely on classification rather than cataloguing and indexing, ensuring a more in-depth coverage of the topic.

• Covers the latest Dewey Decimal Classification, 23rd edition
• Provides practical advice on which schemes will be most suitable for different types of library collection
• Covers classification of digital resources
• Explores recent developments in digital resources and tagging

1

Classification in theory and practice

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to basic classification theory, followed by a brief historical account and an examination of library classification schemes, their principles and features; the challenge of transferring knowledge structures into accessible physical structures. Technical terminology is explained; and there is a brief introduction of DDC, LCC and UDC. There are also sections on enumerative and faceted classification schemes, examining their advantages and disadvantages and referencing CC and BC. Also covered are notation, with all the associated requirements, citation order and filing order, alphabetical subject indexes and subject analysis.

Keywords

citation order

classification

classification schedules

classification schemes

enumerative classification

faceted classification

filing order

library classification

notation

subject indexes

subject analysis

Introduction

We have an innate ability to classify things. At this visceral level classification is unconscious, we classify things to simplify our world and make sense of it. Classification is something we do all the time; we structure our lives and navigate our environment through a largely unrecognised system of classification schemes.

Classification is simply grouping together things which are alike. It is thereby imposing some sort of structure on our understanding of the things around us. We all have our own personal classification of everything we encounter in the world, which we have developed through our experiences. One person might classify dogs under dangerous animals to be avoided; another person might classify dogs as friendly animals to have around the house. Classification helps us to simplify the world. Here is an example of a classification scheme:

This is how the biological sciences make sense of, or impose order on the animal kingdom. Within the phylum chordata, there is a subphylum, vertebrata; within that subphylum there is a class, mammalia; within that class there is a subclass, theria, and within that subclass there is an infraclass, eutheria. This is where, in this table, the hierarchy stops, but we can continue to subdivide until we reach a point where we no longer have a group, we have an individual instance. Within the infraclass eutheria, we recognise an order, primates. Within that order there is a family, hominidae, within that family there is a genus, homo, within that genus there is a species, homo sapiens, and within that species there is – you.

The phyla in the above example are like the main classes in a library classification scheme. We can recognise similarities and differences between animals within a phylum, so we can subdivide to recognise these similarities and differences. The classes within the subphylum vertebrata all have common attributes, but we do not need taxonomic science to tell us that mammals and birds, for example, are different. We have our own informal classifications, which tell us that sparrows and pigeons are different but that they have more in common with each other than either has with dogs.

We can identify various levels of classification: personal and shared, informal and formal. The whole point of classification is that we do not have to understand everything we experience as unique; we can place it within a structure that recognises its properties without having to make individual sense of it.

The animal kingdom classification is a very complex example of a formal classification scheme, but there are simpler examples of conscious or imposed classification all around us. When we go into a record store we notice that it has been organised according to media with sections for music, television and film, and games, for example. If we are looking for music we will find that items have been classified according to format: downloads, CDs, vinyl, and so on. Within formats, music has been organised into genres: classical, jazz, rock, R & B, dance, etc. Our ability to navigate most retail outlets depends upon a shared understanding of how they are classified. Everyone has experienced frustration when a classification scheme does not meet expectations. Supermarkets can deliberately shelve items that have similarities in different parts of the store to expose customers to the widest possible range of products. This might make commercial sense in a supermarket but is not to be recommended in a library.

So far we have seen that classification helps us to organise, to make sense of things. We have also seen that the way in which we make sense of things can be both uniquely personal or shared with other members of a group of which we are a part: social, professional, cultural, etc. A problem for anyone designing classification systems that are meant to be shared is that there will be many different ways in which the same concepts or objects can be classified. We certainly cannot assume that the way in which we make sense of the world is shared by others.

‘Whatever the objects which a person discerns or is capable of discerning, their totality may be classified in more ways than one. … A classification may strike one as more or less natural; and a classification which seems natural to some people may seem wholly unnatural to others.’ ¹

Perhaps one of the most entertaining and influential ways to illustrate the above point is to use Borges’s description of the Chinese encyclopaedia’s classification from which arose Foucault’s The Order of Things. ‘On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright page
• List of figures and tables
• List of abbreviations
• Preface to the second edition
• About the author
• 1: Classification in theory and practice
• 2: Classification schemes for general collections
• 3: Classification schemes for specialist collections
• 4: Classifying digital resources
• 5: Summary
• Answers to practical exercises
• Index