A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Libra | Page 3

The Geology of
Mexico then bears the number 5578: mnemonically, the first 5 is the
Science number; the second 5, Geology; the 7, North America; and the
8, Mexico. Any library attendant or reader after using the scheme a
short time will recognize at a glance, any catalogue or ledger entry,
book or pamphlet, marked 5578 as something on the Geology of
Mexico. Users of the scheme will notice this mnemonic principle in
several hundred places in the classification, and will find it of great
practical utility in numbering and finding books without the aid of
Catalogue or Index, and in determining the character of any book
simply from its call number as recorded on the book, on all its
catalogue and cross reference cards, on the ledger, and in the check
box.
In naming the headings, brevity has been secured in many cases at the
sacrifice of exactness. It was thought more important to have short,
familiar titles for the headings than that the names given should express
with fullness and exactness the character of all books catalogued under
them. Many subjects, apparently omitted, will be found in the Index,
assigned, with allied subjects, to a heading which bears the name of the
most important only. Reference to this Subject Index will decide at
once any doubtful points.
In arranging books in the classification, as in filling out the scheme,
practical usefulness has been esteemed the most important thing. The
effort has been to put each book under the subject to the student of
which it would be most useful. The content or the real subject of which
a book treats, and not the form or the accidental wording of the title,
determines its place. Following this rule, a Philosophy of Art is put
with Art, not with Philosophy; a History of Mathematics, with
Mathematics, not with History; for the philosophy and history are
simply the form which these books have taken. The true content or
subject is Art, and Mathematics, and to the student of these subjects
they are most useful. The predominant tendency or obvious purpose of
the book, usually decides its class number at once; still many books
treat of two or more different subjects, and in such cases it is assigned

to the place where it will be most useful, and underneath the class
number are written the numbers of any other subjects on which it also
treats. These Cross References are given both on the plate and the
subject card as well as on the cross reference card. If a book treats of a
majority of the sections of any division, it is given the Division number
instead of the most important Section number with cross references.
Collected works, libraries, etc., are either kept together and assigned
like individual books to the most specific head that will contain them;
or assigned to the most prominent of the various subjects on which they
treat with cross references from the others; or are separated and the
parts classed as independent works. Translations are classed with their
originals.
The Alphabetical Subject Index is designed to guide, both in
numbering and in finding the books. In numbering, the most specific
head that will contain the book having been determined, reference to
that head in the Index will give the class number to which it should be
assigned. In finding books on any given subject, reference to the Index
will give the number under which they are to be sought on the shelves,
in the Shelf Catalogue, or in the Subject Catalogue. The Index gives
after each subject the number of the class to which it is assigned. Most
names of countries, towns, animals, plants, minerals, diseases, &c, have
been omitted, the aim being to furnish an Index of Subjects on which
books are written, and not a Gazetteer or a Dictionary of all the nouns
in the language. Such subjects will be found as special chapters or
sections of books on the subjects given in the Index. The names of
individual subjects of biographies will be found in the Class List of
Biography. Omissions of any of the more general subjects will be
supplied when brought to notice.
In arranging the books on the shelves, the absolute location by shelf
and book number is wholly abandoned, the relative location by class
and book number being one of the most valuable features of the plan.
The class number serves also as the location number and the shelf
number in common use is entirely dispensed with. Accompanying the
class number is the book number, which prevents confusion of different
books on the same subject. Thus the first Geometry catalogued is
marked 513-1; the second 513-2, and so on to any extent, the last
number showing how many books the library has