Saint Louis College

City of San Fernando, La Union

GRADUATE SCHOOL
God centered leaders Globally Competitive Professionals
Responsive Researchers

Donna Belle V. Oyando Time: 11:00-2:00

MLIS 1 Professor: Dr. Nancy F.
Galban
LIS 205 – Advanced Information Literacy

Library Classifications
What is Library Classification?
-The arrangement of books on shelves or description of them in the manner
which is most helpful to those who read. The emphasis is on usefulness so that
the users can locate the document without complication. -Sayers
-According to S.R. Ranganathan, “it is the translation of the name of the
subject of a book into a preferred artificial language of ordinal numbers and the
individualization of the several books dealing with the same specific subject by
means of a further set of ordinal numbers which represents some features of the
book other than their thought content”.
-According to Margaret Mann, classification is “the arranging of things
according to likeness and unlikeness. It is the sorting and grouping of things, but
in addition classification of books is a knowledge classification with adjustment
made necessary by the physical forms of books.”

Purpose
1. To separate subjects on the basis of likeness and unlikeness.
2. To arrange things in the most convenient order.
3. To make the books available to every reader.
4. To make available the whole library stock to readers by publisher, date of
publication, title, by author or by subjects.

Function
1. Helps the librarian to put new books with the related books when added in
library.
2. Facilitates the complication of various kinds of statistics and reflects the
demand on various sections of the library.
3. Helps to provide “the right book to the right man” and fulfill the “every
book finds its reader”

How do classification system work?

 Classification systems work by organizing like materials together by subject
and author.

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 Saint Louis College
City of San Fernando, La Union
GRADUATE SCHOOL
God centered leaders Globally Competitive Professionals
Responsive Researchers
 Within a subject area, materials are further classified by more specific
information such as time period, or location.
 Each Classification systems utilizes a call number which identifies the
location of the book in the library

Call Numbers
 Classification Systems all use a system of letters and numbers to denote a
particular subject.
 All call numbers utilize the author’s last name as an access point.
 Call numbers can also contain the copy numbers, copyright date,

Different kinds of Classification Systems

 LC (Library of Congress Classification System) used mostly in Academic and
research libraries. Meant for large libraries.
 DDC (Dewey Decimal System) most widely used classification system. Used
in small, medium public and school libraries.
 SuDocs (Superintendent Documents Classification) a specialized system of
classification for Government Documents.
 ANSCR (Alpha-Numeric System for Classification Recordings) Specialized
system for classifying sound recordings.
 NLM (National Library of Medicine Classification) A Specialized classification
system used in medical libraries.

1. Library of Congress
-The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a classification system
that was first developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
to organize and arrange the book collections of the Library of Congress.
Over the course of the twentieth century, the system was adopted for use
by other libraries as well, especially large academic libraries in the United
States. It is currently one of the most widely used library classification
systems in the world.

LCC call number is made up of three elements

1. Subject (based on 21wide subject classes).
2. These classes are then further broken down by subject.
3. author initial and numeric determination based on alphabetic placement

Why different classification systems?

Telephone Nos. (072) 242-5535 (local 143) Website: www.slc-sflu-edu.ph

Telefax No. (072) 888-3955 Facebook Page: SLC Graduate
School
 Saint Louis College
City of San Fernando, La Union
GRADUATE SCHOOL
God centered leaders Globally Competitive Professionals
Responsive Researchers
 Although all classification systems provide access to information. Some
systems work better with specific types of information or in specific types of
Libraries.
 Libraries choose a classification system based on three factors
1. Collection Size
2. Subjects/ Materials in the Collection
3. End User

 For example, The DDC is a broad with classification system. DDC categories
encompass many subjects that are loosely related, but easy to search. This
system works well in library that have general subjects, or specific
Academic subjects.
 Libraries with Small to Medium collections, generally Public Libraries or
School libraries favor this system for its ease of use of their patron base.
 The Library of Congress Cataloging system is a much narrower system
meant for use in libraries that have multiple subcategories.
 Not all classification systems classify books.
 Many Libraries use classification systems to classify:
 Music
 Art
 Government Documents

2. ANSCR
 Stands for Alpha-Numeric System for Classification of Recordings (ANSCR)
 This system is used for sound recordings in Music Libraries and some
academic and public libraries.
 Like LCC and Dewey ANSCR is a Hierarchical system that uses 46 different
subjects that encompass all sound recordings.

ANSCR call number composition

- ANSCR call number composition consists of four lines of information. Each
item of information is explained below. Term One Term Two Term Three Term
Four.
Term One - Letter or letters representing one of the ANSCR categories
Term Two - Based on the ANSCR category specified in Term One, Term Two
will be the first four consecutive letters of the composer's surname,
performer's surname, author's surname, title, or topic
Term Three - Initial letters of the first three significant words of the title, or
the first three consecutive letters of a one-word title
Term Four - First letter of the performer's surname (or production company if
a children's recording) followed by the last two digits of the recording
company's production number

Telephone Nos. (072) 242-5535 (local 143) Website: www.slc-sflu-edu.ph

Telefax No. (072) 888-3955 Facebook Page: SLC Graduate
School
 Saint Louis College
City of San Fernando, La Union
GRADUATE SCHOOL
God centered leaders Globally Competitive Professionals
Responsive Researchers

 Sample ANSCR call number:

 B
 PUCC
 BOH
 S82
Term One: Opera (B) Term Two: Puccini (PUCC)
Term Three: La Boheme (BOH) Term Four: Tullio Serafin, Decca 0082 (S82)

3.SuDOCS
 The Superintendent of Documents classification system was developed in
the Library of the Government Printing Office between 1895 and 1903.
 SuDocs is a classification system created for the many articles that are
published by the US Government.
 The Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification system is
designed to group together publications by the same government author.
Within an agency or department, publications are grouped according to the
subordinate organization. The purpose of this system is to uniquely identify,
logically relate, and physically arrange each publication so that all
publications of a single agency or department may be found together. \
 Each executive department and agency, the Judiciary, Congress, and other
major independent establishments are assigned a unique alphabetical
identifier, based on the name of the organization, e.g., "A" for Agriculture
Department, "JU" for Judiciary, and "NS" for National Science Foundation.
However, the letters "X" and "Y" are reserved for Congress. The designation
"Z" is not used.
 Unlike other classification systems, SuDocs does not use the author’s name
as a classification tool. Further since government documents are rarely in
book form, each individual document has its own call number.
 SuDoc call numbers are divided into two parts:
1.) The stem (the part of the call number to the left of the colon), and
2.) The individual item or book number (the part of the call number to the right
of the colon).
For example: I 19.3:1565
I 19.3: is the stem
1565 is the book number for this item
I Interior Department [Department]
19. U.S. Geological Survey [Sub-agency]
3: Bulletins [Series Designation]
1565 1565 [Book number]

Call numbers Again

Telephone Nos. (072) 242-5535 (local 143) Website: www.slc-sflu-edu.ph

Telefax No. (072) 888-3955 Facebook Page: SLC Graduate
School
 Saint Louis College
City of San Fernando, La Union
GRADUATE SCHOOL
God centered leaders Globally Competitive Professionals
Responsive Researchers
 Call Numbers are the primary access point for finding library materials.
 Call numbers provide a lot of information to patrons and Library staff
members that help each successfully locate books and other library
materials.
 No matter what type of classification system your library uses, if materials
are not put back in the proper order materials can be lost forever!

References:
https://www.eduscapes.com/s401/1-12.htm
https://www.slideshare.net/arunjosephs/library-classification-ppt-arun-joseph-
mphil
file:///C:/Users/library/Downloads/libraryclassificationsystems-ppt2011-
120816015030-phpapp01.pdf

Telephone Nos. (072) 242-5535 (local 143) Website: www.slc-sflu-edu.ph

Telefax No. (072) 888-3955 Facebook Page: SLC Graduate
School