Part 11 (1/2)

600 Useful Arts 610 Medicine.

620 Engineering.

630 Agriculture.

640 Domestic Economy.

650 Communication and Commerce 660 Chemical Technology.

670 Manufactures.

680 Mechanic Trades.

690 Building.

700 Fine Arts 710 Landscape Gardening.

720 Architecture.

730 Sculpture.

740 Drawing, Design, Decoration.

750 Painting.

760 Engraving.

770 Photography.

780 Music.

790 Amus.e.m.e.nts.

800 Literature 810 American.

820 English.

830 German.

840 French.

850 Italian.

860 Spanish.

870 Latin.

880 Greek.

890 Minor Languages.

900 History 910 Geography and Description.

920 Biography.

930 Ancient History.

940 Europe. } 950 Asia. } 960 Africa. } Modern 970 North America. } 980 South America. } 990 Oceanica and Polar Regions.

CHAPTER XXII

The Expansive cla.s.sification: C.A. Cutter's

The cla.s.sification

Those who have used it call it common-sense and up-to-date. They say that it is clear and easy to apply, and that it gives a suitable place for many cla.s.ses of books for which other systems make no provision, or provide badly. It has been maturing for 20 years. Before it was printed it was applied (with a different notation) to the arrangement of a library of over 150,000 v. The experience thus gained has been supplemented as each part was prepared for the press by searching catalogs, bibliographies, and treatises on the subject cla.s.sified.

This ensured fullness. Overcla.s.sification, on the other hand, has been guarded against in four ways: 1) By not introducing at all distinctions that are purely theoretical or very difficult to apply; 2) by printing in small type those divisions which are worth making only when a large number of books calls for much subdivision; 3) by warning cla.s.sifiers in the notes that certain divisions are needed only in large libraries; 4) by printing separately seven cla.s.sifications of progressive fullness, the first having only 11 cla.s.ses, which would be enough for a very small library; the second having 15 cla.s.ses and 16 geographical divisions, suiting the small library when it has grown a little larger; the third having 30 cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.sification with the least possible change of mark.

It often suggests alternative places for a subject, stating the reasons for and against each, so that cla.s.sifiers 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 cla.s.ses, 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 ”local list” by the figures from 11 to 99 gives marks to the 88 most important countries. The addition of a third and sometimes of a fourth figure gives marks for all the independent countries in the world.

Parts of and places in countries are arranged alphabetically under each, and are marked either by the usual Cutter order-table, which has initial letters followed by figures, or by a special Cutter order-table composed of figures alone.