A Library Primer by John Cotton Dana
page 82 of 218 (37%)
page 82 of 218 (37%)
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classifications of progressive fullness, the first having only 11
classes, which would be enough for a very small library; the second having 15 classes and 16 geographical divisions, suiting the small library when it has grown a little larger; the third having 30 classes and 29 geographical divisions; and so on, till the seventh would suffice for the very largest library. The same notation is used throughout, so that a library can adopt the fuller classification with the least possible change of mark. It often suggests alternative places for a subject, stating the reasons for and against each, so that classifiers have a liberty of choice according to the character of their libraries, or of their clientage, or their own preferences. The notation The original feature of this notation is the use of letters to mark non-local subjects and figures for places. This makes it possible to express the local relations of a subject in a perfectly unmistakable way, the letters never being used to signify countries, and the figures never being used for any other subjects but countries. Thus 45 is England wherever it occurs; e.g. F being history and G geography, F45 is the history of England, G45 the geography of England. This local notation can be used not merely with the main classes, but in every subdivision, no matter how minute, which is worth dividing by countries. Whenever one wishes to separate what relates to England from other works on any subject one has only to add the two figures 45. Whenever one sees 45 in the mark of a book one knows that the book so marked treats its subject with special reference to England. This |
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