Decimal Classification Research Articles

UDC on the Internet: Theory and project in evolution for use of indexing and retrieval systems

The starting point of this article is to compare the features of faceted classification and ontologies with a re-evaluation of UDC (Universal Decimal Classification) as an analytico-synthetic classification system. We are therefore proposing a theory that was used as the basis of a project in the 1980s but which will imply an advance in the field of information retrieval in the future context of the Internet. This theory is based on the post-coordinated use of LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) and the setting-up of their equivalence with UDC for indexing. The retrieval process is based on the generation of clusters characteristic of data mining and the linking of existing controlled vocabularies and free language in all languages with the corresponding UDC notations. This will be achieved by making UDC compatible with existing classifications, thus profiting from all the knowledge structured so far, thanks to the creation of a suitable format.

Implications of Five Laws of Library Science on Dr. S. R. Ranganathan's Colon Classification: An Explorative Study

There have been several milestones in the history of library classification but most of the schemes failed to meet the new challenges in the organisation of information. Dr S R Ranganathan tried to revolutionise the whole thinking on classificatory approach, when he devised the Colon Classification (CC) in 1933. He developed the Colon Classification scheme with a sound theoretical background based on normative principles, Five laws of Library science, canons, etc. One important feature of CC is that, its use is not confined to information storage and retrieval alone. This paper presents an over view of different editions of the CC highlighting the salient features of the editions. Further the implication of Five Laws of Library Science has been described. The authors stressed that the features of such as greater hospitality, specificity and mixed notation has paved the way to design and develop the depth schedules on various micro level subjects and so far about 130 micro schedules have been published. The impressions by the leading LIS professionals during and after Ranganathan’s time have been highlighted. The authors expressed the fear that when the library world would see the complete version of the seventh edition of CC? It may be due to lack of institutional support engaging in the research or financial constraints. The authors are of the opinion that any scheme to flourish needs a sound research body to bring out the revised editions as done in the case of Dewey Decimal Classification. The relevance of the CC in the contemporary world of Librarianship is discussed. Finally concludes that CC needs to be resuscitated as it is a precious national heritage; and still a force for the management of libraries.

Interdisciplinary character of the research into prayer-books and catechisms

This paper aims at investigating various approaches to the study of prayer-books and catechisms, i.e., material that is generally included in religious literature and linked to the Church and its teachings. The introduction of the paper contains definitions of prayer-books and catechism, their types and differences. In the second part of the paper, the search results of three largest collective catalogues in Croatia (Crolist, MetelWin and Zaki) were presented, followed by search results of the National and University Library Catalogue, Croatian Scientific Bibliography and HRČAK portal so as to gain insight into literature dealing with prayer-books and/or catechisms with an aim to highlight fields and branches of science dealing with such publications. Literature returned in the search results was analysed in terms of subject and based on Universal Decimal Classification markings, fields and branches of science, i.e. approaches to the said subject were analysed. The aim was to establish the extent to which the research has an interdisciplinary character which has become increasingly important in scientific circles over the recent past. The main contribution of this paper is that it provides insight into methods of investigations and dealing with prayer-books and catechisms applied by different sciences and professions.

Effect of Information Communications Technology on Cataloguing and Classification of Information Resources: A Case Study of Nigerian University Libraries

The work was on effect of information communications technology in cataloguing and classification of information resources. Survey research design method was used for the study. The populations of the study were professional librarians and para - professional librarians in the li braries. Data was collected through the use of questionnaire designed for the study. Libraries involved in the study were Kenneth Dike Library (U.I), Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library (O.A.U) and University of Lagos, main library. Result of the study showed that ICT facilitates easy storage and retrieval of information materials in the library (88.1%); allows a user to check his/her work at anytime and from any terminal and expect the computer to react and reply immediately. ICT also helps to conserve library spa ce (85.7%) ; allows quick decision to be made as regards< information on the same physical location in the library; reduces manual system of work and facilitates easy processing of large amount of information resources (85.7%) . Study also showed that other classification schemes like University of Yale Library; Bookwhere and Database of the National Medical Library (U.S.A) exists apart from the prominent ones like Library of Congress, Dewey Decimal, Universal Decimal and Colon Classification Schemes. ICT also facilitates exchange of information resources between librarie s (7.1%) ; encourages use of virtual software and MARC 21 cataloguing ( 42%); it also facilitates subject heading determination for original cataloguing and makes automatic creation of online catalogues possible (14.3%). Key Words: Effect, Information , Communications, Technology, Cataloguing, Classification, Information Resources.

Melvil Dewey’s Ingenious Notational System

Historically, the notational system of the Dewey Decimal Classification provided for non-institution-specific, relative location shelf arrangements, thus substantially reducing bibliographic classification effort. Today its decimal notation continues to provide the classification scheme with flexible granularity, is hospitable to expansion, expresses relationships, interfaces well with modern retrieval systems, and is internationally understood.

See-also relationships in the Dewey Decimal Classification

This paper investigates the semantics of topical, associative see-also relationships in schedule and table entries of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system. Based on the see-also relationships in a random sample of 100 classes containing one or more of these relationships, a semi-structured inventory of sources of see-also relationships is generated, of which the most important are lexical similarity, complementarity, facet difference, and relational configuration difference. The premise that see-also relationships based on lexical similarity may be language-specific is briefly examined. The paper concludes with recommendations on the continued use of see-also relationships in the DDC.

Biases in knowledge representation: an analysis of the feminine domain in Brazilian indexing languages

The process of knowledge representation, as well as its tools and resulting products are not neutral but permeated by moral values. This scenario gives rise to problems of biases in representation, such as gender issues, dichotomy categorizations and lack of cultural warrant and hospitality. References on women’s issues are still scarce in the literature, which makes it necessary to analyze to what extent the terms related to these particular issues are inserted in the tools in a biased way. This study aimed to verify the presence of the terms female, femininity, feminism, feminist, maternal, motherly, woman/women within the following Brazilian indexing languages: Subject Terminology of the National Library (STNL), University of Sao Paulo Subject Headings (USPSH), Brazilian Senate Subject Headings (BSSH) and Law Decimal Classification (LDC). Each term identified in the first three alphabetical languages generated a registration card containing both its descriptors and non-descriptors, as well as scope notes, USE/UF, RT, and BT/NT relationships. As for the analysis of LDC, the registration card was filled out by following the categories proposed by Olson (1998). The results showed signs of biases, which enabled the proposition of guidelines that may contribute to minimize them and open the way for further discussions.

ENGLISH

Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) by defecto became a knowledge organisation tool, particularly in S&T libraries all over the world. Like DDC updations and revisions, the UDC has also been revised from time to time and incorporates many new classes and changes in the changing context. The third revised edition of UDC in 2005 has many changes. But unfortunately, the common auxiliaries of places, particularly India and its states, are very inadequate even in the recent published edition of UDC. Hence, classifiers and LIS schools all over the country are facing sever problem in assigning the numbers of newly formed states and districts of India. Therefore, this study is an attempt to provide a solution to the above problem by giving a depth schedule for common auxiliaries of places for Indian states, districts, and historically significant entities. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.31.6.1316

An Analysis of the Division “Korean Music [Korean Traditional Music] &amp; Orient Traditional Music” in the 5th Edition of Korean Decimal Classification and Relative Index

An Analysis of the Division “Korean Music [Korean Traditional Music] &amp; Orient Traditional Music” in the 5th Edition of Korean Decimal Classification and Relative Index

An unsupervised approach to automatic classification of scientific literature utilizing bibliographic metadata

This article describes an unsupervised approach for automatic classification of scientific literature archived in digital libraries and repositories according to a standard library classification scheme. The method is based on identifying all the references cited in the document to be classified and, using the subject classification metadata of extracted references as catalogued in existing conventional libraries, inferring the most probable class for the document itself with the help of a weighting mechanism. We have demonstrated the application of the proposed method and assessed its performance by developing a prototype software system for automatic classification of scientific documents according to the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme. A dataset of 1000 research articles, papers, and reports from a well-known scientific digital library, CiteSeer, were used to evaluate the classification performance of the system. Detailed results of this experiment are presented and discussed.

A potência do não percebido: Hegel, Dewey e seu lugar na corrento principal do pensamento classificatório

This article explores the connections between Melvil Dewey, William Torrey Harris and Hegelianisms. It acknowledges their debt to Bacon while it traces the practice of hierarchy from these philosophical influences to Dewey and his legacy, today’s Dewey Decimal Classification. The ubiquity of hierarchy is linked to Dewey’s metaphor of organizing the mob of information into an orderly army using the tool of logic.

Monografije o Hrvatima u Vojvodini od 1990. do 2008. - osnovne informacije

Cilj je radnje prezentirati monografske publikacije o Hrvatima u Vojvodini u razdoblju od 1990. do kraja 2008. godine. Radnja donosi popis od 137 monografskih publikacija objavljenih u navedenom razdoblju, koje su tematski vezane uz društveni i kulturni život Hrvata u Vojvodini. Riječ je o djelima koja su heterogena po cijelom nizu značajki - od opsega, preko složenosti i obuhvata teme pa do znanstvene relevantnosti, no u jednu ih cjelinu okuplja istost teme. Popis publikacija o vojvođanskim Hrvatima objavljen je slijedom koji prati podjelu prema Univerzalnoj decimalnoj klasifikaciji te abecedni popis autora, s tim da su anonimne i publikacije s više autora stavljene na početak niza. Usto, radnja sadrži i kratku analitičku obradu o mjestu objavljivanja djelâ i mjestu djelovanja autorâ, jeziku objave te području znanosti i tematici koja je u njima obrađena. Doprinos je radnje sastavljanje vremenski definirane regionalne bibliografije koja po prvi put predstavlja sve poznate monografske publikacije o vojvođanskim Hrvatima u navedenom razdoblju.

Mapping the knowledge covered by library classification systems

This study explores, in 3 steps, how the 3 main library classification systems, the Library of Congress Classification, the Dewey Decimal Classification, and the Universal Decimal Classification, cover human knowledge. First, we mapped the knowledge covered by the 3 systems. We used the “10 Pillars of Knowledge: Map of Human Knowledge,” which comprises 10 pillars, as an evaluative model. We mapped all the subject-based classes and subclasses that are part of the first 2 levels of the 3 hierarchical structures. Then, we zoomed into each of the 10 pillars and analyzed how the three systems cover the 10 knowledge domains. Finally, we focused on the 3 library systems. Based on the way each one of them covers the 10 knowledge domains, it is evident that they failed to adequately and systematically present contemporary human knowledge. They are unsystematic and biased, and, at the top 2 levels of the hierarchical structures, they are incomplete. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Classifying art with Bliss

The second edition of the Bliss Classification (BC2) is a faceted classification scheme which reworks the original Bliss Classification, devised a century ago. It compares favourably in terms of its wealth of detail, the fineness of its analysis, its flexibility and the conciseness of its notation with its main rivals, the Library of Congress Classification, the Dewey Decimal Classification and the Universal Decimal Classification. The Art class, W, is one of the most detailed and best organised of the BC2 schedules, with the caveat that the author did not find the giving of priority to place over period and the listing of individual artists separately from their periods and places to be the most helpful arrangement. However, room is left for alternative arrangements within the scheme.

The Bellevue Classification System: nursing's voice upon the library shelves

This article examines the inspiration, construction, and meaning of the Bellevue Classification System (BCS), created during the 1930s for use in the Bellevue School of Nursing Library. Nursing instructor Ann Doyle, with assistance from librarian Mary Casamajor, designed the BCS after consulting with library leaders and examining leading contemporary classification systems, including the Dewey Decimal Classification and Library of Congress, Ballard, and National Health Library classification systems. A close textual reading of the classes, subclasses, and subdivisions of these classification systems against those of the resulting BCS, reveals Doyle's belief that the BCS was created not only to organize the literature, but also to promote the burgeoning intellectualism and professionalism of early twentieth-century American nursing.

Brackets and flying commas: UDC in Tate Library

Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is a flexible classification scheme that allows the full expression of the subject of a book. However such flexibility requires decisions to be taken on how to apply and use the schedules. This article discusses the choices made by Tate Library in its implementation of the classification scheme and how the Library has developed UDC for its in-house use, in particular the expansion of the section for modern art.

Dewey and the visual arts: some thoughts on the scheme and its application

The Dewey Decimal Classification system, frequently used to arrange arts collections, has a number of commendable aspects but also some significant shortcomings. Evidence suggests that visual arts library users can further their creative ideas by browsing library shelves, and the author considers this should inform classification practice. Dewey, approached from a user perspective and applied with attention to the scheme’s potential, can provide a shelf order that promotes browsing. The common perception that Dewey is most suited to general library collections is perhaps not entirely justified. Within the visual arts, it possibly accommodates specialist resources rather better than is sometimes imagined, particularly with judicious adaptation. A number of modifications are easy enough to achieve and may be applied across a range of visual arts resources.

음식문화 분야 인터넷자원 분류체계 분석을 통한 한국십진분류법의 항목명 확장에 관한 연구

듀이십진분류법(DDC)은 문헌분류체계로 도서관에서 뿐만 아니라 인터넷자원을 분류하는 기반으로 사용되고 있는데, 이는 DDC가 주기적이며 지속적인 용어 확장을 통해 최신성과 실용성을 유지하기 때문이다. 반면, 한국십진분류법(KDC)은 비정기적인 개정 주기로, 용어의 최신성과 실용성이 떨어진다. KDC가 도서관뿐만 아니라 인터넷자원 분류에도 활용 가능하기 위해서는 실용적인 분류 항목명이 반영되어야 한다. 본 연구에서는 인터넷 자원의 디렉토리 분류체계와 KDC에서 사용하고 있는 분류항목명을 비교 분석하고 KDC에 추가할만한 분류항목명을 확장 제안하였다. 네이버, 야후, 교보문고, 아마존의 디렉토리 분류체계에서 음식문화 분야의 용어를 분석하였으며, 다른 분류체계를 참조하여 KDC로의 적용 방안을 제안하였다. KDC에 추가적인 분류항목명이 필요한 분야는 식품위생, 음료기술, 식품공학, 식품과 음료, 식사 및 식탁차림, 주방, 식당 공간이었으며 부족한 항목명은 음식 관련 용어 및 한식 관련 요리명이 주를 이루었다. 본 연구를 통해 KDC의 부족한 항목명과 적용방안을 제시함으로써 KDC가 도서관과 인터넷자원 분류에 활용될 수 있는 기반을 마련하였다.

Las clasificaciones de materias en Economía: valoración crítica y propuesta de una alternativa básica general

This paper assesses the main subject classifications currently used in economics —Universal Decimal Classifi cation (UDC) and Journal of Economic Literature classifi cation (JEL)—, offers a design for a methodological procedure, and proposes a new subject classification. The new system was developed under the principles of comprehensiveness, universality, terminological accuracy, clarity in conceptual demarcations, simplicity, currency, and appropriateness to the subject divisions commonly used by economists. The proposed classification is developed only to the second hierarchical level, has 40 basic subject divisions and is innovative, although it maintains a close relationship to the main current classifications —UDC and JEL— as well as to the fi elds of knowledge defi ned by teaching and research programs in Spanish universities. Its aim is to improve the quality and efficiency of document handling and the effectiveness of the overall information system and, as such, assists two types of users: those who deal with bibliographic manterial on Economics by improving the speed and quality of their work (of organization, classification, indexing, etc.) and those who perform searches by facilitating the use and choice of subject terms and improving the accuracy of their search results.

Minding Our Ps and Qs: An Adventure in Reclassification

In spring 2007, the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries began the switch from using the Dewey Decimal Classification to the Library of Congress Classification. This article includes the reason for the changeover and describes the process by which the change was made. The project, done mostly in-house, involved members of all units of the libraries, with outside workers hired only to label, sort, and shift books. Various teams or working groups took the lead on different portions of the project, which included mapping the library, hiring and training, supervising the workers, and publicity. The difficulties encountered and solutions to resolve them are discussed, as are the lessons learned from the project.