Library classification

It is distinct from scientific classification in that it has as its goal to provide a useful ordering of documents rather than a theoretical organization of knowledge.

[2] Although it has the practical purpose of creating a physical ordering of documents, it does generally attempt to adhere to accepted scientific knowledge.

[3] Library classification helps to accommodate all the newly published literature in an already created order of arrangement in a filial sequence.

[4] Library classification can be defined as the arrangement of books on shelves, or description of them, in the manner which is most useful to those who read with the ultimate aim of grouping similar things together.

Library classification is meant to achieve these four purposes: ordering the fields of knowledge in a systematic way, bring related items together in the most helpful sequence, provide orderly access on the shelf, and provide a location for an item on the shelf.

[5] Library classification is distinct from the application of subject headings in that classification organizes knowledge into a systematic order, while subject headings provide access to intellectual materials through vocabulary terms that may or may not be organized as a knowledge system.

[6] The characteristics that a bibliographic classification demands for the sake of reaching these purposes are: a useful sequence of subjects at all levels, a concise memorable notation, and a host of techniques and devices of number synthesis.

The earliest library classification schemes organized books in broad subject categories.

During the Renaissance and Reformation era, "Libraries were organized according to the whims or knowledge of individuals in charge.

At the time, he was working in the private library of President Henri de Mesmes II.

Naudé developed a classification system based on seven different classes: theology, medicine, jurisprudence, history, philosophy, mathematics, and the humanities.

Brunet provided five major classes: theology, jurisprudence, sciences and arts, belles-lettres, and history.

Similarly faceted classification schemes are more difficult to use for shelf arrangement, unless the user has knowledge of the citation order.