Page 94 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

80 Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians
Dif fer ent clas si fi ca tion sys tems have been de signed for adop tion
by li braries, but only two have been uni versally adopted: the Dewey
Dec i mal Clas si fi ca tion sys tem and the Li brary of Con gress Clas si fi -
cation sys tem. The library tech nician needs to un derstand these clas-
sification sys tems in or der to as sign num bers cor rectly to the ma ter-
ials, and also to help us ers lo cate materials. A li brary usu ally uses one
sys tem ex clu sively.
Gen erally speak ing, most ac a demic li brar ies and spe cial li brar ies
use the Li brary of Con gress Clas sification sys tem. Most pub lic li-
brar ies and school li brar ies use the Dewey Dec i mal Clas si fi ca tion
system. Many ac ademic li braries switched from the Dewey sys tem to
the Li brary of Con gress sys tem in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
and, there fore, in these libraries, both sys tems may be in op eration.
Some older books will still carry Dewey num bers, while the newer
acquisitions will have the Li brary of Con gress num bers.
The pre lim i nary pro cesses for as sign ing a clas si fi ca tion num ber to
the ma terial are the same as assigning sub ject head ings, as dis cussed
in Chap ter 5. First of all, one has to know ex actly to what sub ject field
the ma terial be longs by care fully ex amining the ta ble of con tents, the
preface, or even the text of the ma terial. For au diovisual ma terials, if
the la bels or the con tainers do not sup ply enough in formation for
making a de cision, the li brary tech nician should listen to or view the
contents. In some ex tremely difficult cases, one may have to con sult
sub ject spe cial ists.
Whereas several sub ject head ings can be assigned to a single item, the
classification num ber has a limit of one. If an item deals with sev eral
subjects, the dominant one should be used. If the dom inant sub ject can-
not be de cided, the first men tioned should be used. If the item deals with
more than three sub jects, a broader, inclusive sub ject should be chosen.
Af ter the sub ject mat ter is de ter mined, the clas si fi ca tion sched ule used
by the li brary is con sulted, and the number or no tation that ap propriately
describes the item’s subject mat ter is chosen.
In this chap ter, both the Dewey Decimal Clas sification system and
the Li brary of Con gress Clas si fi ca tion sys tem will be ex am ined and
explained in detail, together with ex amples.