| Abstract: | Gabriel Naude", as early as 1627, advised on the arrangement of
books in a library as follows:
The seventh point .... is that of the Order and Disposition
which Books ought to observe in a Library; .... for without
this, doubtless, all inquiring is to no purpose, and our labour
fruitless; seeing Books are for no other reason laid and reserved
in this place, but that they may be serviceable upon such
occasions as present themselves; Which thing it is notwithstanding
impossible to effect, unless they be ranged, and disposed according
to the variety of their subjects, or in such other sort, as
that they may easily be found, as soon as named. I affirm,
moreover, that without this Order and disposition, be the collection
of Books whatever, were it of fifty thousand volumes, it
would no more merit the name of a Library, than an assembly
of thirty thousand men the name of an Army, unlesse they be
martially in their several quarters, under the conduct of their
Chiefs and Captains; or a vast heap of stones and materials,
that of a Palace or a house, till they be placed and put together
according to rule, to make a perfect and accomplished structure.
*
Three hundred years later classification of books is still a live
subject, and largely for the same reason: "that they [the books] may
be serviceable upon such occasions as present themselves".
Though it is a live subject, and one of the most powerful tools in
libraries, it is surprising how little seems to have been published
considering its long history on book classification, how little has
been published on the Library of Congress classification, how very
little on L.C. classification in the academic library, and how very,
very little on "L.C. Classification in the Modern Academic Library." |
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