Classification

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5 Ways of Organizing Information

Richard Saul Wurman states that there are “five ultimate hatracks”, or ways to organize information: By category, time, location, alphabet, continuum.

Category 

• Best for organizing items of similar importance
• For example, organization by subject, or format, or other content based characteristics that all the items share

Time

• Good for organizing events, or anything that happens over time
• For example, a guide to TV programming in a given week, history books, a checkbook ledger

Location

• Good for organizing items that come from different places
• For example, organization by nationality or region

Alphabet

• Best for organizing large numbers of items
• For example, words in a dictionary or names in a phone book
• Good when users of the information come from different backgrounds but all share knowledge of the alphabet

Continuum

• Organizes items by magnitude
• Good for assigning value or weight to the information
• For example, small to large, less important to more important, older to younger

Here's one example of a combined organization scheme: a video store like Blockbuster. Their movies are organized by sections such as recent releases, horror, drama, comedy, foreign, etc. [BY CATEGORY] and then within those categories, alphabetically by the title of the movie [ALPHABETICAL]. 

The library is similar, in that books are shelved more or less by subject [CATEGORY], and then within category by author’s last name [ALPHABETICAL], or, when the subject category itself specifies the author, by the title of the book [ALPHABETICAL]. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CLASSIFICATION

A classification system is a logical system for arranging and organizing things. Wurman’s “five ultimate hatracks” are all classification systems. When we talk about the classification of information, we often use the term “bibliographic classification.” Bibliographic means “pertaining to the history, identification, or description of writings or publications.” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary < http://www.m-w.com/ >)

“Bibliographic classification may be defined as a set of organizing principles by which information is arranged, usually according to its subject matter. The subject divisions identified are generally assigned a coded notation to represent the subject content. Individual items are placed within the appropriate subject area, either in a physical arrangement or described in a catalogue or database.

“Classification groups ‘things’ together by seeking out similarities or likenesses within them.” 
-John Feather and Paul Sturges, eds. International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science. New York: Routledge, 1997. “Classification,” pp. 57-58.

Here are examples of some commonly-used systems for classifying information:

• The classified section of the newspaper 
• The Dewey Decimal System - Used in smaller libraries, such as public and school libraries.
• The Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) System - Used for United States Government Publications.
• The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) - Used extensively in Europe.
• The North American Industry Classification System - For classifying economic and company information by industry.
• Subject-specific systems - Developed in order to organize the information in a particular field.
• The Library of Congress (LC) Classification System - Most useful for large libraries, such as university libraries, because of the level of detail into which it can be broken down. 

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LC Classification

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 More Readings

URI User Guide:
LC Classification System

LC Classification Outline

The Library of Congress Classification System is an alpha-numeric system in which major categories correspond to bodies of knowledge. 

It was developed by Herbert Putnam in 1897, and was designed to meet the needs of the Library of Congress's huge collection of books. 

“Most major library classification schemes have their origins in the nineteenth century and reflect either (1) an ideology that thought it possible to embrace the whole world of knowledge or (2) a pragmatic attempt to group similar documents together on the shelves of a major library…The ‘world of knowledge’ is divided into suitable classes and new subject concepts may be added to each when necessary. These schemes are referred to as enumerative schemes. Seriously dated in their fundamental conceptual approach to knowledge, they survive, as libraries can still make them work effectively for shelf arrangement.”
-John Feather and Paul Sturges, eds. International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science . New York: Routledge, 1997. “Classification,” pp. 57-58.
 

The LC Classification System organizes all knowledge into "classes" such as Science, Art, Literature, etc. These classes are assigned alpha-numeric call numbers that make it easy to organize and find library materials (like books). There is a flow through general areas of knowledge. (A) is general knowledge, then we have philosophy & religion (B), then history, then economic activity. (R) flows from (Q), so does (S) & (T). (Z) is bibliography.

LC Classification breaks down each discipline into more specific areas. For example, materials under the classification of Art are assigned call numbers beginning with the letter "N." More specific areas are assigned more specific numbers - NA, Architecture; NA200, Architecture/History/General Works; NA208.5, Architecture/History/Grotesque in Architecture. These numbers can get very specific. For example, NA1019.5 .N45 relates to late neoclassicism in 19th Century Hungarian architecture. (As I said, this system attempts to classify ALL knowledge.)

Let's look at a Library of Congress call number in more detail:

E 183.8 .M6 H54 1974

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LCSH

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“Much more problematic than the description of documents is the description of the content, meaning, purpose, and related features of the messages (the representations of knowledge) found in documents, document collections and parts of documents. Some type of subject indexing, subject cataloguing, or classification is required in order to organize and provide access to messages in documents whenever particular documents are not known in advance.

“After documents and their content have been described, these descriptions must be stated in terms that will match the query terms of searchers. This requires some sort of vocabulary control or management. The traditional approach has been to require the use of a restricted set of terms, with the occasional provision of cross-references from alternative terms.”
— Ray Prytherch, comp. Harrod’s Librarians’ Glossary. 8th ed. 1995, “Organization of Knowledge.”
 

LC Subject Headings are:

• A formal, consistent vocabulary system used by most libraries to describe the subjects of books and other materials.
• Consist of designated words or groups of words under which all materials on that topic can be found.
• Of many possible synonyms that could be used to describe the subject of a book (e.g. garbage, trash, waste, refuse), only one term or phrase is selected as the formal subject heading.

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What's the Difference?

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They are not the same, however...

The table below compares some of the differences between the Library of Congress Classification System and Library of Congress Subject Headings.
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Important Concepts

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1. Any classification system is arbitrary.

Classification numbers are arbitrary, that is they have no essential meaning or value other than that which we give them. In the same way, a dollar bill only has value because we all agree that it does — it is really just a piece of paper. Similarly, a classification scheme is just an agreed-upon system for organizing library materials in a particular library. 

Along these lines, it is worth noting that the very same book will have different call numbers depending on what classification system is in use. Sometimes the call numbers of the same book classified with the same system will even vary from library to library!

For example: 

The Ethics of Authenticity , by Charles Taylor, 1992. 

Library of Congress Classification BF637 .S4 T39 1992

Dewey Decimal Classification 320.01 Tay

Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness, by Jane Lazarre, 1996. 

Library of Congress Classification HQ755.85 .L39 1996

Dewey Decimal Classification 306.8743 Laz

The Monthly Labor Review

Library of Congress Classification HD8051 .A78

SuDoc Classification L 2.6:121/9

2. Any classification system is imperfect.

“There is a constant tension in bibliographic classification between the one-dimensional linear order that is necessary for useful shelf arrangement and the more complex, multi-dimensional set of relationships that exist between concepts. Thus a truly effective classification system may need to reveal links and relationships which are impossible to show when books are placed on shelves.”
-John Feather and Paul Sturges, eds. International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science. New York: Routledge, 1997. “Classification,” pp. 57-58.

“Books are the written expression of man’s ideas and these ideas are complicated. Several subjects may be discussed in one book, one subject may be discussed from several different aspects. Both factors may appear together. The way in which books on the same subject are presented to the reader may differ, or the standard of knowledge required may vary, e.g. nuclear physics. Readers require books for different purposes and an arrangement that satisfies one may not satisfy another.” 
-Thomas Landau, ed. Encyclopedia of Librarianship. 3rd rev. ed. New York: Hafner Publishing Co., 1966. “Classification,” p. 103.

With these comments in mind, it is helpful to remember that the primary use of the LC Classification system is as a location tool – a way to arrange books on the shelf. Call numbers are essentially a “street address” for a book. They tell us where it “lives” on the shelves of the library. 

As have seen, call numbers are closely related to the subject of the book. But they are usually not the best way to search for books by subject. The primary way of searching for books by subject is to use the Library of Congress Subject Headings
 

3. Any classification system embodies the values and assumptions of its creators 

Though at first appearing objective and scientific, the LC Classification System, just like any system, is not value neutral. A closer look at the LC System reveals the values and assumptions of its creator and the society of which he is a product. 

For example: what we noted a few minutes ago about history and social pathologies being close to Marxism and communism. 
 

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Catalogs

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Some examples of catalogs:

Mail order catalogs (e.g. L.L. Bean, Land’s End):

College course catalogs (e.g. the URI Course Catalog):

Museum Catalogs (e.g. Metropolitan Museum of Art):

Library catalogs (e.g. the HELIN Library Catalog):

Since this is a library course, let's concentrate on library catalogs

A library catalog “records, describes and indexes… the resources of a collection, a library, or a group of libraries. Each entry bears details of class number or call number to enable the item to be found, as well as sufficient details (such as author, title, date of publication, editorship, illustrations, pagination and edition) to identify and describe the [item].”
— Ray Prytherch, comp. Harrod’s Librarians’ Glossary. 8th ed. 1995, “Catalogues.”

The Catalog is:

• The key to the collections of any library
• The way to find out what the library owns
• A file of records for all of the information sources in the library's collections

Library collections can consist of:

• Books
• Magazines
• Journals
• Newspapers
• Reserve Readings
• Videos
• Audio Tapes/CDs
• Art Work
• Training Tapes
• Government Documents

Library catalogs are organized by:

• CATEGORY - LC subject headings
• ALPHABET - LC call numbers sit alphabetically on the shelf
• LOCATION - Which collection? Which Library?
• TIME - Information is time sensitive - dates matter!

There are things that the catalog CANNOT do. It can't tell you what is actually inside the covers of the books (chapters)  or tell you what articles are in the magazines, journals or newspapers. For these pieces of information we use different access tools. More on those later in the course.

Bibliographic Records

Every item in the catalog has its own individual catalog record. Each of these catalog records includes important information, such as title and author, to help you to identify the item.  The record also tells what classification the item falls into as well as its location in the library.

Each item's record is divided into a number of parts. In a library OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) each part of the record comprises a FIELD in the electronic record. So the Title of an item will be in the title field, the author(s) in the author field, etc. 

Parts (fields) of the catalog record:
 

Subject vs. Keyword Searching

When you begin research on a topic, you generally don't know any important titles or authors in the field, so you would begin by searching for the subject of your research and not for an author or title. In library OPACs you can search this way by Keyword or by Subject.

In searching an OPAC you can have the search engine look at the whole record for your terms or it can look in specific fields. A Keyword search will look for your terms in all of the basic fields of each catalog record. It's a broad search that will retrieve records that include your "key words" in almost every part of the record. It is so broad that it will probably bring up many irrelevant records. Keyword searching is useful for "mining" more precise terms to help focus the research.

Example:
Keyword search 'education and encyclopedia' will certainly bring up records for the encyclopedias about education that the library holds.

In a subject search, the catalog's search engine looks for your terms only in the Subject field. The catch is that the catalog uses a controlled vocabulary - Library of Congress Subject Headings - and your terms have to match LCSH to be effective. Using the right terms will bring highly relevant and focused results.

Example: Trying a Subject search for 'american civil war' will not retrieve any records because this is not a LCSH. The catalog may refer you to the correct LCSH, 'United States History Civil War, 1861-1865.'

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HELIN

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The HELIN Library Catalog
http://library.uri.edu/

HELIN Catalog User's Guide

· Community College of Rhode Island
· Rhode Island College
· University of Rhode Island
· Providence College
· Johnson & Wales University
· Roger Williams University 
· Salve Regina University 
· Bryant College

You may use and borrow materials from all of these libraries, just as you would the URI library, with your URI student ID. 

HELIN provides descriptive information on books, periodical subscriptions, government publications, videotapes, CDs, and other materials owned by these libraries. 

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Page last updated on Wednesday, February 12, 2003