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Article Outline
Introduction; Types of Libraries; How Libraries Acquire Materials; Organization of Resources; Borrowing Library Materials; Reference; Careers in Library Work; Trends and Challenges; History of Libraries; Libraries of the World
Librarians give careful consideration to the ways in which they describe their documents so that users can easily search library catalogs to determine whether the library has specific items. Rules for describing all forms of library materials are governed by cataloging codes developed at the national or international level. Cataloging codes set standards for the types of information that a catalog should include and for the format in which that information should be presented. By establishing consistency in the content and format of catalog descriptions, these standards simplify the user’s search for library materials. In addition, standardized catalog descriptions enable libraries to easily share information about their collections with one another. In the United States, libraries first attempted to establish a standard for catalog descriptions in the late 19th century. Since then, libraries in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and a number of other countries have adopted a standard set of rules for describing documents in their collections. These rules, called the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), were first published in 1967 and were issued in a second edition in 1978 (AACR2). The AACR2 outlines common principles of catalog description that apply across all document formats. It also gives specific rules needed to describe particular types of documents. For example, information needed to describe videotapes will vary somewhat from that needed to describe books, sound recordings, or computer files. In the early 1970s the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) developed different international standards for describing all types of library documents. These standards, called the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD), form the basis for many of the national cataloging codes that were subsequently developed around the world.
Although cataloging codes were once primarily designed to serve users of large research libraries, more recent standards allow for different levels of detail to meet the needs of users in other types of libraries. These variations recognize that a user in a large research library may need or want to know far more about a document than a patron in a public library or a student in a school library. For example, a card-catalog record developed for a research library might look like this:
Public or school libraries might choose to eliminate some of this information from their catalog descriptions. For example, they may omit the subtitle (“movies, mayhem, and malice”), the place of publication (New York), the size (24 cm), the note about where the essays were first published, and the note that there is an index. For special situations, elements might be added to the description if the librarians believe this would be useful. For example, if the library’s copy of the book is autographed by the author, the cataloger might wish to note that fact.
The form of information on the typical catalog card remained relatively stable from the late 19th century until the advent of online catalogs in the 1980s. Online catalogs have changed the presentation of catalog information considerably. Although some online catalogs have elected to present entries in a screen display that resembles the catalog card, most have chosen to use a master catalog record that contains complete catalog information about a given item. From this master catalog record, users can generate computer displays of varying amounts of information, depending on their needs. For example, the user may establish parameters in a search that would generate the following level of display, which provides only basic information to identify the document:
The user can also use the computer catalog to generate a more complete or full display that provides additional information. A full display for the previous record could be as follows:
Some names associated with library materials present peculiarities that complicate searches in library catalogs. For example, some authors publish works under more than one name. American author Mark Twain wrote under this celebrated pseudonym, but he also wrote under his given name, Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Cataloging standards call for the use of the name that appears in the work being cataloged. Logically, users may search under Twain for books written under the name Twain, but they must search under Clemens to find those books written under the author’s given name. To assist catalog users who search only under the secondary name, or under a name used for only some of a person’s works, catalogers typically provide cross references in the catalog. In card and book catalogs, these cross references direct users to “see” or “see also” an alternate name. A library that cataloged a work under Mark Twain but did not own any books that had Samuel Langhorne Clemens as author would likely provide the following reference:
If the library had books for which Clemens was listed as the author and others for which Twain was the author, the references would likely read as follows:
In these situations, users could search under either name and they would find either the catalog record or a reference instructing them on how to find the alternate name in the catalog. In some online catalogs, these instructions may not actually appear on the screen. Instead, electronic links may be made for the user so that a search on either “Twain” or “Clemens” would display catalog records for all books written under either name.
Library classification systems enable libraries to bring together in one place all works dealing with the same subject. Placing similar materials in one location helps users find multiple items on a given subject more efficiently than they could if those same items were scattered around the library. Classification also facilitates browsing for related materials, since all related materials share similar classifications. In libraries in the United States, the two most frequently used classification systems are the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), which is used primarily in public and school libraries, and the Library of Congress Classification, which is used most often by academic and special libraries.
In the mid-19th century, most libraries used locally developed classification systems to arrange their collections. These systems usually provided a broad indication of the subject and gave a permanent location for a book on a shelf. This situation changed dramatically with the introduction of the Dewey Decimal Classification. American librarian and library educator Melvil Dewey devised the system in 1873 while he was a student at Amherst College in Massachusetts. The Dewey Decimal system was first published in 1876 as A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library.
In structuring his system, Dewey used numbers and decimal fractions to indicate the subject content of a given work. For example, the numbers 200-290 denote all works on the subject of religion, and the numbers 900-990 denote all works on the subject of geography and history. This approach to notation allowed for a representation of a variety of subject categories, or classes, and subclasses. It also expressed the hierarchical relationship of these classes and subclasses while allowing unlimited expansion for additional subclasses. These new subclasses are introduced in new editions of the Dewey Decimal system, published every six to ten years. Although the names of the principal classes have changed over time, their content has remained stable. Today, the ten primary classes are as follows:
The Dewey Decimal Classification is based on multiples of ten (the word decimal in the name of the classification system comes from decem, the Latin word for “ten”). Thus, each of the ten main classes has the potential to be broken down into smaller multiples of ten. For example, class 500 (natural sciences and mathematics) has the following subclasses:
Each of these classes may then be further divided. For example, the subclasses of 540 are as follows:
Each of these classes may be divided ten additional times and those ten more times, and so forth. At each step of the hierarchy, one additional number from 1 to 9 is added to the length of the notation. Thus, class 500 (natural sciences and mathematics) has subclass 540 (chemistry and applied sciences); a subclass of 540 is 541 (physical and theoretical chemistry), a subclass of 541 is 541.3 (physical chemistry), and so on. Because this notation generally reflects the position of the class within the hierarchical structure of concepts, the Dewey Decimal Classification system provides libraries with a great deal of flexibility in tailoring their classification to their collections and the needs of their users. For example, a library with a considerable collection of works dealing with cats might classify them very specifically. A book on Siamese cats could be placed in the class 636.82 (short-haired cats) or in an even more detailed class, 636.825 (Asian short-haired cats), while a book on Maine coon cats would be placed in 636.83 (long-haired domestic cats). This detailed indication of subject is called close classification. A library with more limited holdings on cats might elect to place all of those works in the general class number for cats, 636.8, regardless of the specific nature of individual books or documents. This classification strategy is known as broad classification. This ability to customize the detail of classification is one of the strengths of the Dewey Decimal system, because it provides for unique library and user needs. However, this ability is also one of the major shortcomings of the system, because each library’s tailoring of the class number results in a certain amount of inconsistency when libraries share information about their collections with each other. Ideally, when one library has classified a work, other libraries should be able to use that same classification number. However, one library may have classified the document broadly while another may have preferred close classification.
The Dewey Decimal Classification number that appears on the spine label for a book is part of the call number. In a library using Dewey Decimal Classification, the call number is a combination of the Dewey Decimal number and an alphanumeric (consisting of both letters and numbers) notation that usually represents the surname of the author and the initial letter of the first word of the title. This secondary notation is called the book number or the cutter number. It was developed and popularized in the late 19th century by Charles A. Cutter, a librarian in Boston. For example, the call number for the book The World of Antiques, by Richard Landon, might be
The Dewey Decimal number is 745.1 and the cutter number is L259w. The alphanumeric combination L259 in the cutter number is derived from a special table to represent the name Landon, while the w represents the first significant word of the title, world. If Landon wrote other books on antiques, the use of a letter to represent the title would allow librarians to easily arrange his books alphabetically on the shelf. In a smaller collection, the cutter number is often simplified by indicating the first few letters of the author’s name. For the same book, a simplified call number might be
In the first half of the 20th century, the Dewey Decimal Classification was the most widely used classification system in American libraries. Beginning in the 1960s a major movement began, principally among academic libraries, to change their collections from the Dewey Decimal system to the Library of Congress Classification system. There were two primary factors behind this movement: (1) the shortcomings of Dewey Decimal Classification for sharing materials between libraries, and (2) the limitations of Dewey Decimal Classification in handling new subjects without introducing major changes in the system. The cause of this latter problem is that the Dewey system had identified most major classes and subclasses when it was first created, leaving few vacant places for new subjects as they developed over the years. New subjects must be placed within the existing structure, resulting in increasingly longer classification numbers, or worse, in the need to completely revise major parts of the classification of a library’s collection. Beginning in the 1960s, new developments in scholarship and technology necessitated major revisions of the Dewey Decimal Classification’s system for the subjects of psychology (150), sociology (301), law (340), public administration (350), education (370), mathematics (510), and the life sciences (560-590). In addition, each new edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification has introduced hundreds of other minor classification and notation changes. Despite its shortcomings, the Dewey Decimal Classification system remains a cornerstone for the organization of library materials. In addition to its widespread use in the United States and Canada, it has been translated into a number of languages, including French, Spanish, German, Arabic, and Russian, making it the most widely used library classification system the world. The system is continuously revised to keep pace with knowledge in all areas. The Dewey Decimal Classification system is published by Forest Press, which in 1988 became a division of OCLC: Online Computer Library Center, an international computer-based library utility with headquarters in the United States. This acquisition sparked increased OCLC research into the use of the Dewey system for the retrieval of information from the Internet.
In contrast to the Dewey Decimal Classification, which was developed by a single person, the Library of Congress (LC) Classification evolved as a collaborative effort. In 1898 a group under the guidance of J. C. M. Hanson, the head of the catalog division at the Library of Congress, and Charles Martel, the library’s chief classifier, developed the first part of the classification system. Their work established the subject areas for bibliography work and for library science. In the years that followed, numerous specialists contributed to the further development of the Library of Congress system and expanded it to cover other subject areas.
The Library of Congress Classification system is divided into 21 major classes, using letters for each. The system does not use the letters I, O, W, X, and Y. The major classes of the Library of Congress Classification system are as follows:
Originally, the Library of Congress Classification system designated the main class of a subject by using a single letter in the call number. However, as the classification introduced new subjects, it used a second letter to further subdivide the main classes into subclasses. For example, H indicates the broad subject of social sciences, and HF denotes the more specific subject of commerce. Class K (law) is the only part of the classification to use a third letter to further subdivide the second-level classes. For example, class KL represents the history of law in various regions of Eurasia, and KLA represents materials specific to Russia and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In all classes, the letter or letters are followed by a number of up to four digits, further dividing subjects and making the Library of Congress Classification an alphanumeric notation. These numbers themselves may be further expanded with decimal figures to represent even more specific subjects.
In addition to the use of letters and numbers to denote subjects, the Library of Congress call numbers make frequent use of cutter numbers that indicate something further about the subject of the document. For example, the Dewey Decimal Classification might indicate a hierarchical relationship of places on Earth, classifying documents dealing with these places by hemisphere, then by country, then by region of that country, and so forth. The Library of Congress Classification uses its own variation of this scheme to divide places alphabetically. For example, U.S. states are represented in the Library of Congress system with these additional alphanumeric designations:
Similarly, when treating individual subjects, the Library of Congress system may classify them alphabetically. For types of cats, for example, LC indicates the name of the breed:
When not used to indicate the subject or form of a document, the additional notation in the call number is used to subdivide works alphabetically, generally by the author’s last name. For example, the book Burmese Cats: Everything About Acquisition, Care, Nutrition, Behavior, Health Care, and Breeding (1995), by Carolyn M. Vella, would have this call number:
In this example, the alphabetical notation SF indicates that the work deals with animal culture, while 449 specifies the book’s subclass: cats. The notation .B8 further specifies Burmese cats. The fourth line is the cutter number, an alphanumeric combination, V45, that identifies the author’s last name, Vella. Finally, the notation 1995 designates the year in which the book was published.
Although Library of Congress Classification, like Dewey, has a hierarchical structure to it, this is not reflected in its notation. In classifying cats treated as pets, the following breakdown results:
The notation uses decimal numbers to fit in new subjects where needed. If LC’s notation worked in the same way that Dewey’s works, then as one went from the notation SF 447.5 (breeding) to SF 447 one would expect to be taken to the broader class of which breeding of cats was only a part. For example, in the Dewey Decimal Classification system, a detailed subclass of 636.825 designates Asian short-haired cats, but the more general number 636.82 represents, simply, short-haired cats. In the nonhierarchical notation used by the Library of Congress Classification, however, one goes from the subclass for breeding of cats (SF 447.5) to the equal subclass for culture and care of cats (SF 447). In other words, the LC does not permit libraries to adjust or abridge numbers to go to a broader class, as is done by libraries using Dewey Decimal Classification. Libraries using LC Classification must accept the class numbers completely as assigned by the Library of Congress rather than abridge them as libraries using the Dewey Decimal Classification system might do. This requirement restricts a library’s flexibility in customizing a classification number to fit the size and nature of its collection, but the requirement also provides for a major strength of LC Classification: the ability of libraries to share classification work without having to concern themselves with how other libraries may have tailored the number to fit local needs. The ability to share classification work among all libraries using LC Classification was a major factor in the decision of many academic and research libraries to abandon the Dewey Decimal Classification system in favor of the LC system.
Another major classification system, widely used in Europe, Latin America, Russia, and Japan, is the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). First presented in Belgium in 1895 by bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, it was designed to facilitate their organization of a universal bibliography of all recorded knowledge. Initially based on the fifth edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification, the Universal Decimal Classification combines notation to express multiple concepts. For example, 940(=395) indicates a work on the history of Vikings in Europe—940 is the top-level notation designating a work on the history of Europe, and 395 is the bottom-level notation denoting a study of Vikings. The major purpose of the Universal Decimal Classification is to identify the content of documents. This is different from the Dewey and Library of Congress schemes, which also aim to locate items on the library’s shelves. If a library is also using the Universal Decimal Classification number for shelf location, the assigned top-level call number generally serves that purpose. Since its inception, the Universal Decimal system has developed increased capacity to express multiple concepts by combining notation. The system’s ability to represent multiple subjects of a document and to express the complex relationships of those subjects has made the Universal Decimal Classification a valuable tool in retrieving information from computerized databases. The Universal Decimal Classification system is issued by the International Federation for Documentation, in The Hague, Netherlands, which is responsible for its ongoing revision.
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