Search (34 results, page 1 of 2)

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Date

15. 7.2002 20:48:22

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Content

"The contents of the book cover: This book is intended as an introduction to the Dewey Decimal Classification, edition 22. It is not a substitute for it, and I assume that you have it, all four volumes of it, by you while reading the book. I have deliberately included only a short section an WebDewey. This is partly because WebDewey is likely to change more frequently than the printed version, but also because this book is intended to help you use the scheme regardless of the manifestation in which it appears. If you have a subscription to WebDewey and not the printed volumes you may be able to manage with that, but you may then find my references to volumes and page numbers baffling. All the examples and exercises are real; what is not real is the idea that you can classify something without seeing more than the title. However, there is nothing that I can do about this, and I have therefore tried to choose examples whose titles adequately express their subject-matter. Sometimes when you look at the 'answers' you may feel that you have been cheated, but I hope that this will be seldom. Two people deserve special thanks. My colleague Vanda Broughton has read drafts of the book and made many suggestions. Ross Trotter, chair of the CILIP Dewey Decimal Classification Committee, who knows more about Dewey than anyone in Britain today, has commented extensively an it and as far as possible has saved me from error, as well as suggesting many improvements. What errors remain are due to me alone. Thanks are also owed to OCLC Online Computer Library Center, for permission to reproduce some specimen pages of DDC 22. Excerpts from the Dewey Decimal Classification are taken from the Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index, Edition 22 which is Copyright 2003 OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. DDC, Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc."

Footnote

"The title says it all. The book contains the essentials for a fundamental understanding of the complex world of the Dewey Decimal Classification. It is clearly written and captures the essence in a concise and readable style. Is it a coincidence that the mysteries of the Dewey Decimal System are revealed in ten easy chapters? The typography and layout are clear and easy to read and the perfect binding withstood heavy use. The exercises and answers are invaluable in illustrating the points of the several chapters. The book is well structured. Chapter 1 provides an "Introduction and background" to classification in general and Dewey in particular. Chapter 2 describes the "Outline of the scheme" and the conventions in the schedules and tables. Chapter 3 covers "Simple subjects" and introduces the first of the exercises. Chapters 4 and 5 describe "Number-building" with "standard subdivisions" in the former and "other methods" in the latter. Chapter 6 provides an excellent description of "Preference order" and Chapter 7 deals with "Exceptions and options." Chapter 8 "Special subjects," while no means exhaustive, gives a thorough analysis of problems with particular parts of the schedules from "100 Philosophy" to "910 Geography" with a particular discussion of "'Persons treatment"' and "Optional treatment of biography." Chapter 9 treats "Compound subjects." Chapter 10 briefly introduces WebDewey and provides the URL for the Web Dewey User Guide http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/dewey/ webdewey_userguide/; the section for exercises says: "You are welcome to try using WebDewey an the exercises in any of the preceding chapters." Chapters 6 and 7 are invaluable at clarifying the options and bases for choice when a work is multifaceted or is susceptible of classification under different Dewey Codes. The recommendation "... not to adopt options, but use the scheme as instructed" (p. 71) is clearly sound. As is, "What is vital, of course, is that you keep a record of the decisions you make and to stick to them. Any option Chosen must be used consistently, and not the whim of the individual classifier" (p. 71). The book was first published in the UK and the British overtones, which may seem quite charming to a Canadian, may be more difficult for readers from the United States. The correction of Dewey's spelling of Labor to Labo [u] r (p. 54) elicited a smile for the championing of lost causes and some relief that we do not have to cope with 'simplified speling.' The down-to-earth opinions of the author, which usually agree with those of the reviewer, add savour to the text and enliven what might otherwise have been a tedious text indeed. However, in the case of (p. 82):
Dewey requires that you classify bilingual dictionaries that go only one way with the language in which the entries are written, which means that an English-French dictionary has to go with English, not French. This is very unhelpful and probably not widely observed in English-speaking libraries ... one may wonder (the Norman conquest not withstanding) why Bowman feels that it is more useful to class the book in the language of the definition rather than that of the entry words - Dewey's requirement to class a dictionary of French words with English definitions with French language dictionaries seems quite reasonable. In the example of Anglo-French relations before the second World War (p. 42) the principle of adding two notations from Table 2 is succinctly illustrated but there is no discussion of why the notation is -41044 rather than -44041. Is it because the title is 'Anglo'-'French', or because -41 precedes -44, or because it is assumed that the book is being catalogued for an English library that wished to keep all Anglo relations together? The bibliography lists five classic works and the School Library Association (UK) website. The index provides additional assistance in locating topics; however it is not clear whether it is intended to be a relative index with terms in direct order or nouns with subdivisions. There are a few Cross-references and some double posting. The instruction ") ( means 'compared with"' (p. 147) seems particularly twee since the three occasions in the index could easily have included the text "compared with;" the saving of space is not worth the potential confusion. There is no entry for "displaced standard subdivisions" one must look under "standard subdivisions" with the subdivision "displaced." There is no entry for "approximating the whole," although "standing room," "class here notes" and "including notes" are listed. Both "rule of zero" and "zero" with the subdivision "rule of" are included. The "rule of zero" is really all you need to know about Dewey (p. 122): Something which can be useful if you are really stuck is to consider the possibilities one digit at a time, and never put 0 if you can put something more specific. Be as specific as possible, but if you can't say something good, say nothing. This slim volume clearly follows this advice."

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Date

22. 6.2005 15:12:11

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Series

Heyne Business; 22/1019

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Date

25. 3.2019 18:15:22

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Date

26. 7.2002 14:01:22

Footnote

Rez. in: Journal of documentation 49(1993) no.1, S.68-70. (A. Maltby); Journal of librarianship and information science 1993, S.108-109 (A.G. Curwen); Herald of library science 33(1994) nos.1/2, S.85 (P.N. Kaula); Knowledge organization 22(1995) no.1, S.45 (M.P. Satija)

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Abstract

A system of library classification that flashed across the inquiring mind of young Melvil Louis Kossuth Dewey (known as Melvil Dewey) in 1873 is still the most popular classification scheme.. The modern library classification begins with Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). Melvil Dewey devised DDC in 1876. DDC has is credit of 128 years of boudless success. The DDC is being taught as a practical subject throughout the world and it is being used in majority of libraries in about 150 countries. This is the result of continuous revision that 22nd Edition of DDC has been published in July 2003. No other classification scheme has published so many editions. Some welcome changes have been made in DDC 22. To reduce the Christian bias in 200 religion, the numbers 201 to 209 have been devoted to specific aspects of religion. In the previous editions these numbers were devoted to Christianity. to enhance the classifier's efficiency, Table 7 has been removed from DDC 22 and the provision of adding group of persons is made by direct use of notation already available in schedules and in notation -08 from Table 1 Standard Subdivision. The present book is an attempt to explain, with suitable examples, the salient provisions of DDC 22. The book is written in simple language so that the students may not face any difficulty in understanding what is being explained. The examples in the book are explained in a step-by-step procedure. It is hoped that this book will prove of great help and use to the library professionals in general and library and information science students in particular.

Content

1. Introduction to DDC 22 2. Major changes in DDC 22 3. Introduction to the schedules 4. Use of Table 1 : Standard Subdivisions 5. Use of Table 2 : Areas 6. Use of Table 3 : Subdivisions for the arts, for individual literatures, for specific literary forms 7. Use to Table 4 : Subdivisions of individual languages and language families 8. Use of Table 5 : Ethic and National groups 9. Use of Table 6 : Languages 10. Treatment of Groups of Persons

Object

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Footnote

Zugleich Dissertation Univ. Düsseldorf. - Rez. in: ZfBB. 22(1975) S.53-57 (H.-A. Koch)

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Signature

77 TWP 3911(2)+22

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Footnote

Rez. in: Knowledge organization 22(1995) no.3/4, S.178-179 (M.P. Satija); Journal of documentation 51(1995) no.4, S.437-439 (R. Brunt)

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Object

DDC-22

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Footnote

Rez. in: Australian library journal 45(1996) no.1, S.62 (P. Lynch); Knowledge organization 23(1996) no.3, S.180 (M.P. Satija); Library review 45(1996) no.7, S.76-77 (G. Muirhead)

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Date

10. 9.2004 10:22:40

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Date

22. 4.2007 10:07:51

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Footnote

Rez. in: KO 32(2005) no.1, S.47-49 (M. Hudon): "Vanda Broughton's Essential Classification is the most recent addition to a very small set of classification textbooks published over the past few years. The book's 21 chapters are based very closely an the cataloguing and classification module at the School of Library, Archive, and Information studies at University College, London. The author's main objective is clear: this is "first and foremost a book about how to classify. The emphasis throughout is an the activity of classification rather than the theory, the practical problems of the organization of collections, and the needs of the users" (p. 1). This is not a theoretical work, but a basic course in classification and classification scheme application. For this reviewer, who also teaches "Classification 101," this is also a fascinating peek into how a colleague organizes content and structures her course. "Classification is everywhere" (p. 1): the first sentence of this book is also one of the first statements in my own course, and Professor Broughton's metaphors - the supermarket, canned peas, flowers, etc. - are those that are used by our colleagues around the world. The combination of tone, writing style and content display are reader-friendly; they are in fact what make this book remarkable and what distinguishes it from more "formal" textbooks, such as The Organization of Information, the superb text written and recently updated (2004) by Professor Arlene Taylor (2nd ed. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2004). Reading Essential Classification, at times, feels like being in a classroom, facing a teacher who assures you that "you don't need to worry about this at this stage" (p. 104), and reassures you that, although you now speed a long time looking for things, "you will soon speed up when you get to know the scheme better" (p. 137). This teacher uses redundancy in a productive fashion, and she is not afraid to express her own opinions ("I think that if these concepts are helpful they may be used" (p. 245); "It's annoying that LCC doesn't provide clearer instructions, but if you keep your head and take them one step at a time [i.e. the tables] they're fairly straightforward" (p. 174)). Chapters 1 to 7 present the essential theoretical concepts relating to knowledge organization and to bibliographic classification. The author is adept at making and explaining distinctions: known-item retrieval versus subject retrieval, personal versus public/shared/official classification systems, scientific versus folk classification systems, object versus aspect classification systems, semantic versus syntactic relationships, and so on. Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the practice of classification, through content analysis and subject description. A short discussion of difficult subjects, namely the treatment of unique concepts (persons, places, etc.) as subjects seems a little advanced for a beginners' class.
In Chapter 10, "Controlled indexing languages," Professor Broughton states that a classification scheme is truly a language "since it permits communication and the exchange of information" (p. 89), a Statement with which this reviewer wholly agrees. Chapter 11, however, "Word-based approaches to retrieval," moves us to a different field altogether, offering only a narrow view of the whole world of controlled indexing languages such as thesauri, and presenting disconnected discussions of alphabetical filing, form and structure of subject headings, modern developments in alphabetical subject indexing, etc. Chapters 12 and 13 focus an the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), without even a passing reference to existing subject headings lists in other languages (French RAMEAU, German SWK, etc.). If it is not surprising to see a section on subject headings in a book on classification, the two subjects being taught together in most library schools, the location of this section in the middle of this particular book is more difficult to understand. Chapter 14 brings the reader back to classification, for a discussion of essentials of classification scheme application. The following five chapters present in turn each one of the three major and currently used bibliographic classification schemes, in order of increasing complexity and difficulty of application. The Library of Congress Classification (LCC), the easiest to use, is covered in chapters 15 and 16. The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) deserves only a one-chapter treatment (Chapter 17), while the functionalities of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), which Professor Broughton knows extremely well, are described in chapters 18 and 19. Chapter 20 is a general discussion of faceted classification, on par with the first seven chapters for its theoretical content. Chapter 21, an interesting last chapter on managing classification, addresses down-to-earth matters such as the cost of classification, the need for re-classification, advantages and disadvantages of using print versions or e-versions of classification schemes, choice of classification scheme, general versus special scheme. But although the questions are interesting, the chapter provides only a very general overview of what appropriate answers might be. To facilitate reading and learning, summaries are strategically located at various places in the text, and always before switching to a related subject. Professor Broughton's choice of examples is always interesting, and sometimes even entertaining (see for example "Inside out: A brief history of underwear" (p. 71)). With many examples, however, and particularly those that appear in the five chapters an classification scheme applications, the novice reader would have benefited from more detailed explanations. On page 221, for example, "The history and social influence of the potato" results in this analysis of concepts: Potato - Sociology, and in the UDC class number: 635.21:316. What happened to the "history" aspect? Some examples are not very convincing: in Animals RT Reproduction and Art RT Reproduction (p. 102), the associative relationship is not appropriate as it is used to distinguish homographs and would do nothing to help either the indexer or the user at the retrieval stage.
Essential Classification is also an exercise book. Indeed, it contains a number of practical exercises and activities in every chapter, along with suggested answers. Unfortunately, the answers are too often provided without the justifications and explanations that students would no doubt demand. The author has taken great care to explain all technical terms in her text, but formal definitions are also gathered in an extensive 172-term Glossary; appropriately, these terms appear in bold type the first time they are used in the text. A short, very short, annotated bibliography of standard classification textbooks and of manuals for the use of major classification schemes is provided. A detailed 11-page index completes the set of learning aids which will be useful to an audience of students in their effort to grasp the basic concepts of the theory and the practice of document classification in a traditional environment. Essential Classification is a fine textbook. However, this reviewer deplores the fact that it presents only a very "traditional" view of classification, without much reference to newer environments such as the Internet where classification also manifests itself in various forms. In Essential Classification, books are always used as examples, and we have to take the author's word that traditional classification practices and tools can also be applied to other types of documents and elsewhere than in the traditional library. Vanda Broughton writes, for example, that "Subject headings can't be used for physical arrangement" (p. 101), but this is not entirely true. Subject headings can be used for physical arrangement of vertical files, for example, with each folder bearing a simple or complex heading which is then used for internal organization. And if it is true that subject headings cannot be reproduced an the spine of [physical] books (p. 93), the situation is certainly different an the World Wide Web where subject headings as metadata can be most useful in ordering a collection of hot links. The emphasis is also an the traditional paperbased, rather than an the electronic version of classification schemes, with excellent justifications of course. The reality is, however, that supporting organizations (LC, OCLC, etc.) are now providing great quality services online, and that updates are now available only in an electronic format and not anymore on paper. E-based versions of classification schemes could be safely ignored in a theoretical text, but they have to be described and explained in a textbook published in 2005. One last comment: Professor Broughton tends to use the same term, "classification" to represent the process (as in classification is grouping) and the tool (as in constructing a classification, using a classification, etc.). Even in the Glossary where classification is first well-defined as a process, and classification scheme as "a set of classes ...", the definition of classification scheme continues: "the classification consists of a vocabulary (...) and syntax..." (p. 296-297). Such an ambiguous use of the term classification seems unfortunate and unnecessarily confusing in an otherwise very good basic textbook an categorization of concepts and subjects, document organization and subject representation."

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