A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library by Melvil Dewey
page 10 of 154 (06%)
page 10 of 154 (06%)
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New books as received are numbered and put into place, in the same way
that new titles are added to the card catalogue. The single digit occasionally prefixed to the book number, e.g. the 3 in 421-3-7 is the nearest height in decimeters of books too large to be put on the regular library shelves, which are only 2-1/2 decimeters apart. The great mass of the library consists of 2-decimeter books, the size numbers of which are omitted. Books from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 decimeters in height have 3 prefixed to the book number, and are found on the bottom shelf of each range. The larger sizes are prefixed with 4, 5, &c., and are found on the special shelves provided, in order to avoid the great waste of space otherwise occasioned by the relative location. By this use of the size numbers a close economy of space is secured. Thus all the books on any given subject are found standing together, and no additions or changes ever separate them. Not only are all the books on the subject sought, found together, but the most nearly allied subjects precede and follow, they in turn being preceded and followed by other allied subjects as far as practicable. Readers not having access to the shelves find the short titles arranged in the same order on the Shelf Catalogue, and the full titles, imprints, cross references, notes, &c., on the Subject Catalogue. The uncatalogued pamphlets treating of any subject bear the same class number and are arranged on the shelves immediately after the books of each section. In both the Authors' Catalogue and the Subject Index, brevity has been studied because of the economy, but more because of the much greater ease of reference to a short title catalogue. The custom of giving full titles, etc., under authors, and only references or very brief titles under subjects, has been reversed. A reader seeking a book of a _known |
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