COMPUTER MANIPULATION OF CLASSIFICATION NOTATIONS
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Pages | 216-223 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026432 |
| Author | THEODORE C. HINES |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
COMPUTER MANIPULATION OF
CLASSIFICATION NOTATIONS
THEODORE C. HINES
School
of
Library
Service,
Columbia
University,
New York
While there has been discussion of the computer manipulability of classi-
fication notations from
a
theoretical viewpoint, there
has
been
little,
if any
on practical filing. A practical filing rubric, with explanation of machine
filing concepts, is presented here. Some observations on the suitability of
Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal notations for computer search
follow.
THE SUBJECT of computer manipulation of the notation used with
library classification schemes has been raised in the literature several times.
So far however, there has been no extensive discussion of it.
This paper deals with several aspects of the topic in an effort to clarify
some issues. Only the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress classifica-
tions and the associated book numbers, are referred to here. The principles
developed should apply to the notations of other systems as well. The
Universal Decimal Classification, for example, files by the system described
here when a sort order is assigned to the signs and symbols used.
Basic to computer manipulation of class notations or call numbers is the
ability to arrange them in shelf-list order. Different as the Dewey Decimal
and Library of Congress classifications are in many respects, the general
arranging principles are the same for each.
The class numbers, or the entire call numbers, may be arranged by fol-
lowing the sorting rules and the general rules for the written expression of
entries given in
Computer
filing
of index,
bibliographic,
and catalog
entries.1
It
should be helpful, both as a means of providing an addendum to this filing
code and as an aid in explaining the arrangement pattern of call numbers
for these two classifications, to give this explanation in terms of the system
presented in
Computer
filing.
This system consists of two sections: sorting rules and rules for the
written expression of entries so that they will arrange properly by the sort-
ing rules.
The basic sort sequence is: space, the letters of the English alphabet
A-Z,
and the arabic numerals 0-9. The code itself has provision for addi-
tional or modified letters. These are not discussed here since they do not
appear in normal use of
the
notation for classification systems being con-
sidered. Capital and lower case letters are equivalent for sorting purposes.
Arrangement is generally as if the material were read from left to right,
except that numerals are to be filed in the normal numerical
sequence.
That
216
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