An underlying pattern we can discern in our
choice of arrangement of books is the thread of geographical location (country
etc.) that can unite different subject classes. The question, in bald terms is:
do we group books by subject and sub-subject to the n’th degree, or do we
regroup at some level by country? We see this as options in many different
classes, such as Law 340, Public administration 350, and the Arts, where we are
given the choice to group principally by subject or by country.
What could be the considerations affecting
this choice? A basic approach of Dewey (and other systems) is the primacy given
to subject or discipline at the level of the ten main Classes or hundred Divisions
themselves. In other words, Dewey has
already determined that we will group primarily by subject, not by country. I
do not think any librarian would want to separate out all his items by country
(barring an institution focused solely on Area studies, perhaps!). This is
obvious in the case of the exact (physical) sciences and technology: physics is physics, wherever it is studied,
chemistry is chemistry, genetics is genetics, electronics is electronics.
When we come to the arts, humanities and the social sciences,
however, there is a pause for thought. In religions, for instance, apart from
the major ‘world’ religions (Christianity, for example), the schedules
consciously provide headings by region (culture): 292 Classical religion (Greek and Roman), 293
Germanic religion, 294 Religions of Indic origin, and under 299, religions of
all other regions and ethnic origins. Still, the fact remains that these are
all accommodated under the umbrella of 200, Religion.
Philosophy, like Religion, is organized
largely by region (or culture) of origin, apart from a list of general
categories in the beginning (reflecting, however, the concerns of mainly
Western thought): 181 has sub-section numbers for various eastern philosophies,
182-189 has numbers for various schools of ancient and medieval western
philosophy, 190 is for modern western philosophies. But not so Psychology: the
numbers are provided mostly based on the school, thinker, or functional area or
application.
The prominent number which, by definition,
is arranged on regional and country lines is, of course History, starting from
World history. Geography also is similarly expanded, although there are a
larger number of general principles at the start of geography as an art (or
science). Other parts of the humanities could also be so arranged, except that
the categories are principally based on the western development of the field, and numbers are
provided at the end for parallel development of non-western modes (e.g. 789.9
Nonwestern art music, practically the last
number in the range 780-789 Music!).
Where does one introduce the country
development? The choice can be made at different levels of the schedule. A
broad area of knowledge (say, each of the thousand Sections) may be sub-divided
a number of times. Many of the schedules provide a choice of dividing by
country right at the outset, and adding numbers from other parts to reproduce
the detailed sub-classes, or alternatively doing the country-wise
classification at a later stage (see Law, Public Administration). Many
schedules provide a way of forming a main number country-wise by appending
geographical appellations directly, ’93-99, rather than through standard
subdivisions -093-099, which then would permit attachment of further
sub-divisions in parallel with the initial number development in that section.
The country classification, of course, can always be done at the last by adding
numbers from Table 2, -093 to -099. This would give us the choice of expanding
in the order either subject-place-topic or facet, or subject-topic-place. One
of my grouses is that 789.9 Nonwestern art music does not provide this
(explicitly). The schedule doesn’t say explicitly that 789.93-789.99 can be
used for different countries. The above choice is then taken away, because you
then have to use -009 for standard subdivisions of place: if you make, say,
789.9’00954 Indian music, you have to stop there, and cannot add all the
special subdivisions provided under 789.3-789.9 using connectors -01, -1, etc.
On the other hand, if you were explicitly allowed to make 789.954 Indian music,
or even 789.9548 South Indian music, you
could treat it as a main number (not as the standard subdivision of place) and
attach -011 to -015 General principles, -016 Stylistic influences, -018 Musical
forms and -1 Voices, instruments etc. (but you would need some connector, such
as the “special topics” -04, to
distinguish subdivisions of place from subtopic).
