Research and Information Classification Systems

[SidewalkCynic]

... I thought somebody would correct the misimpression of research libraries before now. I'm sure I'm not the only Hypography member who knows Library of Congress classification has been the standard for 40 years or so. I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows Library of Congress is abbreviated LC.

 

I hope I'm not the only one who knows that Dewey was abandoned in research libaries many years ago because it is too vague and can't be adapted to new and developing research. I hope I'm not the only one who knows that while LC classification has its weakness, its beauty is in its standardization: an application for copyright starts the process of assigning an LC call number. The verso of the title page of all books on which a copyright is at least pending gives information about that call number. What that means is that you can go to any library in the country (except a few special libraries and school libraries, although most of them have ongoing conversion projects) and find the book under pretty much the same call number as in your local research or public library. And you can find related books much more easily than the somewhat primitive Dewey system allowed.

 

In the last few days, while this discussion was going on, I recommended Hypography to several of my friends who work in a research library where I worked close to 20 years. I'm really embarrassed.

 

I wonder, how do serious researchers not know how to use a research library? Are the rest of the posters here junior high school students? And why has this thread survived this long? It seems to be an attempt at prepublication promotion of a book. If you look at it as something more serious, it evaporates in a way that should be given serious study. I can tell you how to find books on evaporation.

 

I'd rather give a tutorial on research libraries on an appropriate thread, but lots of people inexplicably seem to be looking at this thread. I say inexplicably because there wasn't much here to begin with and then it turned into a discussion of an obsolete classification system. I had thought this was a serious science site and recommended it to my friends as such, even showing them how they could find me here. If any of them is reading this, I'm sorry.

 

--lemit

Please, lemit, absolve us of our sins

[lemit]

Sure. You're absolved.

 

--lemit

[SidewalkCynic]

My vagabond travels have revealed that local public libraries use the Dewey Decimal system, and the few college libraries I have surveyed use the Library of Congress system. the New York Public Library main library at 42 Street and Fifth Avenue is a research library that I do not use, because it is inconveniently located for me, and the books are not brows-able by the public.

 

In any event, I believe, both the Dewey and the library of Congress classification systems are antiquated systems and can be replaced with systems that better represent the perceptual arrangement of human knowledge, and cataloguing using systems that computers can manage that people were unable to imagine to be possible decades ago.

 

I have devised a system that I believe is very accurate in it's representation of the arrangement of knowledge, and I believe it is versatile enough to be able to be customized to meet the needs of local communities that may view things to be arranged differently and/or categories designated differently. My system was devised primarily to be used for classifying personal computer document (My Documents) storage. But it is very possible to apply it to public library systems, and I think that the ability for people to be able to "synchronize" their PC documents classification with their local community knowledge center (library), and eventually, their Internet search engines, is a step in the direction that will lead to the better evolution of society; because it basically comes down to aligning "logic."

 

So, let's first take a look at the Dewey Decimal and library of Congress systems' primary domains, and what we can do with them, as far as understanding a logical sequence....

[lemit]

My vagabond travels have revealed that local public libraries use the Dewey Decimal system, and the few college libraries I have surveyed use the Library of Congress system. the New York Public Library main library at 42 Street and Fifth Avenue is a research library that I do not use, because it is inconveniently located for me, and the books are not brows-able by the public.

 

In any event, I believe, both the Dewey and the library of Congress classification systems are antiquated systems and can be replaced with systems that better represent the perceptual arrangement of human knowledge, and cataloguing using systems that computers can manage that people were unable to imagine to be possible decades ago.

 

I have devised a system that I believe is very accurate in it's representation of the arrangement of knowledge, and I believe it is versatile enough to be able to be customized to meet the needs of local communities that may view things to be arranged differently and/or categories designated differently. My system was devised primarily to be used for classifying personal computer document (My Documents) storage. But it is veryI possible to apply it to public library systems, and I think that the ability for people to be able to "synchronize" their PC documents classification with their local community knowledge center (library), and eventually, their Internet search engines, is a step in the direction that will lead to the better evolution of society; because it basically comes down to aligning "logic."

 

So, let's first take a look at the Dewey Decimal and library of Congress systems' primary domains, and what we can do with them, as far as understanding a logical sequence....

 

I hope you get an appropriate hearing. Good luck.

 

--lemit