Outline History of Classification: An Essay

History of European Ideas, 2021

John R. Hodgson, 'Classified by their Classifications: Nineteenth-Century Library Classifications in Context' ABS TRA CT This paper investigates influences upon the development of library classification systems in nineteenthcentury Britain. Two case studies-Edward Edwards's 'scheme of classification for a town library' of 1859 and the Bibliotheca Lindesiana of the earls of Crawford who made a number of significant contributions to the development of library classification over a fifty-year period-are deployed to explore how classification schemes reflected the habituses of their creators and how they were shaped by their socioeconomic, epistemological and geographical contexts. The paper also investigates the discourse of classification, examining authors' claims for the legitimacy, widespread applicability and superiority of their schemes, while revealing how these claims were compromised or modified by practical considerations. The case studies suggest that a modernizing narrative of a transition in the second half of the nineteenth century from an aristocratic, largely rural and amateur paradigm of knowledge formation to a bourgeois, urban and professional model requires significant modification: a more nuanced approach is required, which recognizes the permeability of geographic and social boundaries and the continued relevance of aristocratic libraries as key sites of knowledge formation until the end of the century.

Knowledge organization, 2001

Foucault began ‘The Order of Things’ by quoting a passage from Borges, on the monstrous classification of animals in ‘a certain Chinese encyclopaedia’. In this monstrous classification: ‘animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification. (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies.’ In the wonderment of this taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap, the thing that, by means of the fable, is demonstrated as the exotic charm of another system of thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking that.’ (Foucault, 1974, p. xv) Foucault argued that within this taxonomy what really ‘transgresses the boundaries of all imagination, of all possible thought, is simply that alphabetical series (a, b, c, d) which links each of these categories to all the others.’ (Foucault, 1974, p. xvi) The use of the alphabetical symbols suggests that relationships exist or should exist between the categories thus linked. For Foucault the other 'monstrous quality’ running through Borges’ taxonomy is the fact that these categories could only exist in and through language. They could not be juxtaposed in any other sense, in any other place, in any material site. Borges’ monstrous encyclopaedic classification is an important starting point for Foucault in his investigations into the historical contingency of discourses of order, power and control. Foucault’s investigations of the operations of power through localised institutions and practices are the starting point of this paper which explores the order and juxtaposition of ideal concepts through the discursive practice of classification schemes.

International Journal of Research in Library Science, 2023

The concept book classification is based on the concept classification as found in philosophy or logic. The traditional classification concept was customized by the intellect of many stalwart of library science. Many eminent persons were involved in this process .Aristotle’s traditional concepts; classical Indian philosophical thoughts of classification were customized for practical book classification. W C B Sayers, Melvil Dewey and S R Ranganathan are relevant in this regard. Sayers devised the grammar of library classification. Dewey opened the gateway of practical classification by devising the decimal system. S R Ranganathan has put the subject on a new dimension by introducing many concepts in theoretical and practical areas. The study aims to recollect the contributions library science stalwarts in library classificatio

2013

The studies of library classifications generally interact with a historical approach that contextualizes the research and with the ideas related to classification that are typical of Philosophy. In the 19th century, the North-American philosopher and educator William Torrey Harris developed a book classification at the St. Louis Public School, based on Francis Bacon and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The objective of the present study is to analyze Harris's classification, reflecting upon his theoretical and philosophical backgrounds in order to understand Harris's contribution to Knowledge Organization (KO). To achieve such objective, this study adopts a critical-descriptive approach for the analysis. The results show some influences of Bacon and Hegel in Harris's classification.

66th IFLA Council and General Conference

The authors of the scheme contend that there was and is a need for a classification system for libraries of Judaica to classify and arrange their collections according to Jewish concepts based upon Jewish thought and terminology. This paper describes the history of A Classification System for Libraries of Judaica it's development, the process involved in preparing the 2nd and 3rd revisions, and its use in various libraries.

2015

This paper traces the roots of the positivist epistemology of librarianship; its ideals of neutrality and access as they intersect in the classification and assignment of library subject headings; and the notion of the author as it relates to the creation of library authority files. By legitimizing their own professional neutrality, librarians have wielded tremendous power over what libraries collect as well as how those works are represented, but have done so with little self-reflection. The act of classifying works and assigning subject headings is not a neutral process. It is time for librarians to use new tools such as the RDA standards to hold academic libraries accountable for assessing their collections to ensure they represent the diversity of voices that comprise the full record and collective history of our culture.

Library Classification can also be considered to be a process of putting books and other reading material on a subject in a logical sequence on the shelf, which could be of immense help to the users. It requires an adept thorough study and practice in the technique of classification of books, knowledge of the details and handling of the scheme of classification. A close familiarity with the broad spectrum of learning, its growth and the interrelationship of various components is also necessary. A good selection of books is the basis towards a good library collection and proper classification is fundamental in organizing collection and in the retrieval of specific books for use by the users. Classification is one of the most important steps in the organization of the libraries and has been aptly called the “Foundation of Librarianship.”3

Scire: representación y organización del conocimiento, 2013

We study library classifications criticisms from a poststructuralist and pragmatist point of view that rejects the idea of universality in knowledge organization systems. From this perspective, we analize the seminal texts on library classifications criticisms and conclude that the seek of neutrality in some of these texts is not only an impossible goal but also a contradiction in the representation of different cultures. Therefore, we suggest the commitment with the goals and the recognition of bias in library classifications as an important device for achieving a transcultural ethics in knowledge organization and representation.